PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Marta Siedlecka
AU  - Michał Wereszczyński
AU  - Borysław Paulewicz
AU  - Michał Wierzchoń
TI  - Visual awareness judgments are sensitive to the outcome of performance monitoring
AID  - 10.1101/572503
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 572503
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/03/11/572503.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/03/11/572503.full
AB  - Can previous mistakes influence our visual awareness? In this study we tested the hypothesis that perceptual awareness judgments are sensitive to the results of performance monitoring, and specifically to internal or external accuracy feedback about previous behaviour. We used perceptual discrimination task in which participants reported their stimulus awareness. We created two conditions: No-feedback and Feedback (discrimination accuracy feedback at the end of each trial). The results showed that visual awareness judgments are related to the accuracy of current and previous response. Participants reported lower stimulus awareness for incorrectly versus correctly discriminated stimuli in both conditions, but also lower awareness level in correct trials preceded by trials in which discrimination was incorrect, compared to trials preceded by correct discrimination. This difference was significantly stronger in Feedback condition. Moreover, in Feedback condition we observed “post-error slowing” for both discrimination response and PAS rating. We discuss the relation between the effects of performance monitoring and visual awareness and interpret the results in the context of current theories of consciousness.