Bhangal Sabrina, Merrick Christina, Cho Hyein, Morsella Ezequiel
Department of Psychology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, United States.
Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States.
Front Psychol. 2018 Jun 21;9:1017. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01017. eCollection 2018.
High-level cognitions can enter consciousness through the activation of certain action sets and the presentation of external stimuli ("set-based entry," for short). Set-based entry arises in a manner that is involuntary and systematic. In the Reflexive Imagery Task, for example, subjects are presented with visual objects and instructed to not think of the names of the objects. Involuntary subvocalizations arise on roughly 80% of the trials. We examined whether or not set-based entry can also occur in the case of involuntary counting. Subjects in Experiment 1A were instructed to not count the number of objects presented in an array. Involuntary counting arose on a high proportion of the trials (a mean proportion of ∼0.90) for stimulus arrays having 2-5 objects, and such counting arose less frequently across trials when the array consisted of 6-10 objects (a mean proportion of ∼0.21). The data from Experiment 1B revealed that, when people choose to perform Set , they also experience thoughts about an unselected Set (Set ). Subjects were trained on one set (e.g., to "color name") and then, when presented with stimuli, were given the choice to perform the trained set or a novel set. Consistent with theories proposing that the conscious contents represent several potential action plans, subjects were equally likely to experience set-related imagery or set-unrelated imagery. Our findings regarding set-based entry are relevant to many subfields of psychology and neuroscience (e.g., the study of high-level mental processes, attention, imagery, and action control).
高级认知可以通过激活某些动作集和呈现外部刺激进入意识（简称为“基于集的进入”）。基于集的进入以一种非自愿且系统的方式出现。例如，在反射性意象任务中，向受试者呈现视觉对象，并指示他们不要去想这些对象的名称。在大约80%的试验中会出现非自愿的默读。我们研究了在非自愿计数的情况下是否也会发生基于集的进入。实验1A中的受试者被指示不要数呈现阵列中的对象数量。对于有2至5个对象的刺激阵列，在很大比例的试验中会出现非自愿计数（平均比例约为0.90），而当阵列由6至10个对象组成时，这种计数在各试验中出现的频率较低（平均比例约为0.21）。实验1B的数据表明，当人们选择执行某个集时，他们也会体验到关于未选择集的想法。受试者在一个集上接受训练（例如，“说出颜色名称”），然后在呈现刺激时，被给予选择执行训练集或新集的机会。与提出意识内容代表多个潜在行动计划的理论一致，受试者体验到与集相关意象或与集无关意象的可能性相同。我们关于基于集的进入的研究结果与心理学和神经科学的许多子领域相关（例如，高级心理过程、注意力、意象和动作控制的研究）。
