More than words: can free reports adequately measure the richness of perception?

The question of the richness (or sparseness) of conscious experience has evoked ongoing debate and discussion. Claims for both richness and sparseness are supported by empirical data, yet they are often indirect, and alternative explanations have been put forward. Recently, it has been suggested that current experimental methods limit participants' responses, thereby preventing researchers from assessing the actual richness of perception.

A standardized framework to test event-based experiments.

The replication crisis in experimental psychology and neuroscience has received much attention recently. This has led to wide acceptance of measures to improve scientific practices, such as preregistration and registered reports. Less effort has been devoted to performing and reporting the results of systematic tests of the functioning of the experimental setup itself.

Taking consciousness for real: Increasing the ecological validity of the study of conscious vs. unconscious processes.

The study of consciousness has developed well-controlled, rigorous methods for manipulating and measuring consciousness. Yet, in the process, experimental paradigms grew farther away from everyday conscious and unconscious processes, which raises the concern of ecological validity. In this review, we suggest that the field can benefit from adopting a more ecological approach, akin to other fields of cognitive science.

Using virtual reality to induce multi-trial inattentional blindness despite trial-by-trial measures of awareness.

Unconscious processing has been widely examined using diverse and well-controlled methodologies. However, the extent to which these findings are relevant to real-life instances of information processing without awareness is limited. Here, we present a novel inattentional blindness (IB) paradigm in virtual reality (VR).

An adversarial collaboration protocol for testing contrasting predictions of global neuronal workspace and integrated information theory.

The relationship between conscious experience and brain activity has intrigued scientists and philosophers for centuries. In the last decades, several theories have suggested different accounts for these relationships. These theories have developed in parallel, with little to no cross-talk among them.

Windows of Integration Hypothesis Revisited.

In the ongoing research of the functions of consciousness, special emphasis has been put on integration of information: the ability to combine different signals into a coherent, unified one. Several theories of consciousness hold that this ability depends on - or at least goes hand in hand with - conscious processing. Yet some empirical findings have suggested otherwise, claiming that integration of information could take place even without awareness.

"Real-life" continuous flash suppression (CFS)-CFS with real-world objects using augmented reality goggles.

Continuous flash suppression (CFS) is a popular method for suppressing visual stimuli from awareness for relatively long periods. Thus far, this method has only been used for suppressing two-dimensional images presented on screen. We present a novel variant of CFS, termed "real-life" CFS, in which a portion of the actual immediate surroundings of an observer-including three-dimensional, real-life objects-can be rendered unconscious.