Reporting on the temporal properties of visual events masked with continuous flash suppression

Abstract

© 2015 Elsevier Inc. To what extent can individuals introspect on dynamic properties of masked stimuli? Specifically, can observers report about the order in which a visual stimulus occurs, relative to a behavior, even when that stimulus is dramatically reduced in visibility via masking? Masking stimuli using continuous flash suppression, we asked participants to report on whether the stimulus appeared before or after a button-press. Data collected across three studies are consistent with the notion that information on the temporal order of events is preserved even when the visibility of the event in question is impoverished. These data may suggest that dynamic properties of masked stimuli are a promising set of features for understanding questions regarding an observer's perceptual experience and limitations of high-level information processing.