Expectations speed up conscious perception
Thursday, February 3, 2011 - 11:20
in Psychology & Sociology
The human brain works incredibly fast. However, visual impressions are so complex that their processing takes several hundred milliseconds before they enter our consciousness. Scientists have now shown that this delay may vary in length. When the brain possesses some prior information -- that is, when it already knows what it is about to see -- conscious recognition occurs faster. Until now, neuroscientists assumed that the processes leading up to conscious perception were rather rigid and that their timing did not vary.
