Data from: Blinded by the load: attention, awareness and the role of perceptual load

What is the relationship between attention and conscious awareness?
Awareness sometimes appears to be restricted to the contents of focused
attention, yet at other times irrelevant distractors will dominate
awareness. This contradictory relationship has also been reflected in an
abundance of discrepant research findings leading to an enduring
controversy in cognitive psychology. Lavie's load theory of attention
suggests that the puzzle can be solved by considering the role of
perceptual load. Although distractors will intrude upon awareness in
conditions of low load, awareness will be restricted to the content of
focused attention when the attended information involves high perceptual
load. Here, we review recent evidence for this proposal with an emphasis
on the various subjective blindness phenomena, and their neural
correlates, induced by conditions of high perceptual load. We also present
novel findings that clarify the role of attention in the response to
stimulus contrast. Overall, this article demonstrates a critical role for
perceptual load across the spectrum of perceptual processes leading to
awareness, from the very early sensory responses related to contrast
detection to explicit recognition of semantic content.

注意力与意识觉知之间存在何种关联？意识有时似乎仅局限于集中注意力所指向的内容，但在其他情境下，无关干扰物却会主导意识觉知。这种矛盾的关联也体现在大量相悖的研究发现中，引发了认知心理学领域长期存在的争议。拉维的注意负载理论（Lavie's load theory of attention）提出，可通过考量知觉负载（perceptual load）的作用解开这一谜题。尽管在低负载条件下，干扰物会侵入意识觉知，但当被关注的信息涉及高知觉负载时，意识觉知将被限制在集中注意力的内容范围内。本文综述了支持该理论的近期证据，重点关注由高知觉负载条件诱发的各类主观视盲现象及其神经关联（neural correlates）。本文还呈现了新的研究发现，用以阐明注意力在刺激对比度（stimulus contrast）响应过程中的作用。总体而言，本文论证了知觉负载在所有通向意识觉知的知觉进程中扮演的关键角色，从与对比度检测相关的早期感官响应，到语义内容的外显识别，均涵盖在内。