ABSTRACT
A considerable part of information processing in the human mind is carried out at the preconscious level. For sensing and perceiving we do not need to be in a state that will by default explicate the contents of sensed and perceived information in explicit representations of which we become aware. Experimental evidence supporting this conjecture includes data on masked priming of perceptual form or conceptual representations, preconscious processing of subdominant information in binocular rivalry, preconscious processing of sensory objects made indiscriminable by crowding, subthreshold sensory discrimination of weak or isoluminant stimuli, subthreshold affective processing, etc. (e.g., de Gelder, de Haan, & Heywood, 2001; Dehaene & Naccache, 2001; Dixon, 1981; He, Cavanagh, & Intriligator, 1996; Jaśkowski, van der Lubbe, Schlotterbeck, & Verleger, 2002; Kinoshita & Lupker, 2003; Marcel, 1983; Morris, 1983; Morris, Öhman, & Dolan, 1998; Moutoussis & Zeki, 2002; VanRullen & Koch, 2003).
