awarenessperception

Awarenessperception refers to the interplay between perceptual processing and conscious awareness in cognitive science. It describes how sensory input is processed by perceptual systems, and how only a portion of that input reaches conscious experience, while other aspects remain unconscious or preconscious. The term is used to discuss both the conditions under which perceptual information becomes accessible to consciousness and how awareness itself can shape interpretation and response.

Key distinctions include that perception involves feature extraction, categorization, and interpretation of sensory signals, whereas awareness concerns the subjective experience and reportability of those signals. Awareness can modulate perception through attention, expectations, and context.

Neural basis is distributed: early sensory areas encode features, while frontoparietal networks and thalamic relays participate in maintaining information in conscious awareness.

Theoretical approaches include global workspace theory, which posits widespread neural broadcasting that makes information accessible to conscious thought and control, higher-order theories linking awareness to meta-representations, and predictive coding models where awareness reflects successful inference.

Measurement and methods combine behavioral tasks, subjective reports and confidence judgments with neuroimaging or electrophysiology to examine what is perceived, reported, or withheld from awareness.

Applications span human-computer interaction, education, clinical assessment of attention and perceptual disorders, and research into mindfulness and decision making.

Related concepts include consciousness, perception, metacognition, subliminal perception, inattentional blindness, and perceptual learning.

Further reading and see also entries focus on the boundaries of reportable experience and the neural correlates of perceptual awareness.