Keywords
perceptual color experience, cognitive penetration, color perception
Abstract
Fiona Macpherson (2012) argues that various experimental results provide strong evidence in favor of the cognitive penetration of perceptual color experience. Moreover, she proposes a mechanism for how such cognitive penetration occurs. We argue, first, that the results on which Macpherson relies do not provide strong grounds for her claim of cognitive penetrability; and, second, that, if the results do reflect cognitive penetrability, then time-course considerations raise worries for her proposed mechanism. We base our arguments in part on several of our own experiments, reported herein.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Gross, Steven; Chaisilprungraung, Thitaporn; Kaplan, Elizabeth; Menendez, Jorge Aurelio; and Flombaum, Jonathan
(2014)
"Problems for the Purported Cognitive Penetration of Perceptual Color Experience and Macpherson’s Proposed Mechanism,"
Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication:
Vol. 9.
https://doi.org/10.4148/1944-3676.1085
References
Bae, G.-Y., Olkkonen, M., Allred, S., Wilson, C., and Flombaum, J. 2014. Stimulus-specific variability in color working memory with delayed estimation. Journal of Vision 14, pp. 1-23.
Bhalla, M., and Proffitt, D. 1999. Visual-motor recalibration in geographical slant perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance 25, pp. 1076-96.
Bitter, D. 2014. Is low-level visual experience cognitively impenetrable: A critical analysis of some of the purported best evidence. This volume.
Brockmole, J., Wang, R., and Irwin, D. 2002. Temporal integration between visual images and visual percepts. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 28, pp. 315-34.
Burge, T. 2010. Origins of Objectivity (Oxford University Press).
Connor, E., Egeth, H., and Yantis, S. 2004. Visual attention: Bottom-up versus top-down. Current Biology 14, pp. R850-2.
Dehaene, S., Changeux, J-P., Naccache, L., Sackur, J., and Sergent, C. 2006. Conscious, preconscious, and subliminal processing: a testable taxonomy. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 10, pp. 204-11.
Delk, J. and Fillenbaum, S. 1965. Differences in perceived color as a function of characteristic color. The American Journal of Psychology 78, pp. 290-3.
Deroy, O. 2013. Object-sensitivity versus cognitive penetrability of perception. Philosophical Studies 162, pp. 87-107.
Durgin, F., Baird, J., Greenburg, M., Russell, R., Shaughnessy, K., and Waymouth, S. 2009. Who is being deceived? The experimental demands of wearing a backpack. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 16, pp. 964-9.
Emrich, S., and Ferber, S. 2012. Competition increases binding errors in visual working memory. Journal of Vision 12, pp. 1-16.
Evans, J., and Frankish, K. 2009. In Two Minds: Dual Processes and Beyond (Oxford University Press).
Finke, R., and Freyd, J. 1989. Mental extraction and cognitive penetrability: Reply to Ranney and proposals for evaluative criteria. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 118, pp. 403-8.
Firestone, C. 2013. On the origin and status of the “El Greco fallacy.” Perception 42, pp. 672-74.
Firestone, C., and Scholl, B. 2014. “Top-down” effects where none should be found: The El Greco fallacy in perception research. Psychological Science 25, pp. 38-46.
Firestone, C., and Scholl, B. forthcoming. Can you experience ‘top-down’ effects on perception?: The case of race categories and perceived lightness. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.
Freyd, J. 1987. Dynamic mental representations. Psychological Review 94, pp. 427-38.
Hansen, T., Olkkonen, M., Walter, S. and Gegenfurtner, K. 2006. Memory modulates color appearance. Nature Neuroscience 9, pp. 1367–8.
Kahneman, D. 2011. Thinking, Fast and Slow (Macmillan).
Kosslyn, S., Reiser, B., Farah, M., and Fliegel, S. 1983. Generating visual images: Units and relations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 112, pp. 278-303.
Lamme, V. 2003. Why visual attention and awareness are different. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7, pp. 12-8.
Levin, D. and Banaji, M. 2006. Distortions in the perceived lightness of faces: The role of race categories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 135, pp. 501-12.
Machery, E. forthcoming. Cognitive penetrability: A no progress report. In Zeimbekis, J., and Raftopoulos, A. (eds.), Cognitive Effects on Perception: New Philosophical Perspectives (Oxford University Press).
Macpherson, F. 2012. Cognitive penetration of colour experience: Rethinking the issue in light of an indirect mechanism. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 84, pp. 24-62.
Olkkonen, M., Hansen, T., and Gegenfurtner, K. 2008. Colour appearance of familiar objects: effects of object shape, texture and illumination changes. Journal of Vision 8, pp. 1-16.
Olkkonen, M., Hansen, T., and Gegenfurtner, K. 2012. High-level perceptual influences on color appearance. In G. Hatfield and S. Allred (eds.), Visual Experience: Sensation, Cognition and Constancy (Oxford University Press, pp. 178-98).
Orne, M. 1962. On the social psychology of the psychological experiment: With particular reference to demand characteristics and their implications. American Psychologist 17, pp. 776-83.
Peirce, J. 2009. Generating stimuli for neuroscience using PsychoPy. Frontiers in Neuroinformatics, 2:10. doi:10.3389/neuro.11.010.2008
Perky, C. 1910. An experimental study of imagination. American Journal of Psychology 21, pp. 422-52.
Plendl, H. Paulus, W., Roberts, I., Gotzel, K., Towell, A., Pitman, J., Scherg, M, and Halliday, A. 1993. The time course and location of cerebral evoked activity associated with the processing of color stimuli in man. Neuroscience Letters 150, pp. 9-12.
Prinz, J. 2012. The Conscious Brain (Oxford University Press).
Pylyshyn, Z. 1999. Is vision continuous with cognition? The case for cognitive impenetrability of visual perception. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 22, pp. 341-65.
Russell, R., and Durgin, F. 2008. Demand characteristics, not effort: The role of backpacks in judging distance. Journal of Vision 8, p. 755a.
Sakai, K., and Miyashita, Y. 1991. Neural organization for the long-term memory of paired associates. Nature 354, pp. 152-5.
Schlack, A., and Albright, T. 2007. Remembering visual motion: Neural correlates of associative plasticity and motion recall in cortical area MT. Neuron 53, pp. 881-90.
Segal, S. 1972. Assimilation of a stimulus in the construction of an image: The Perky effect revisited. In P. Sheehan (ed.), The Function and Nature of Imagery (Academic Press).
Stefanucci, J., and Geuss, M. 2009. Big people, little world: The body influences size perception. Perception 38, pp. 1782-95.
Stokes, D. 2013. Cognitive penetrability of perception. Philosophy Compass 7, pp. 646-63.
Van Orden, G., and Kloos, H. The question of phonology and reading. In M. Snowling and C. Hulme (eds.), The science of reading: A handbook (Blackwell, pp. 61-78).
Viviani, P., and Aymoz, C. 2001. Colour, form, and movement are not perceived simultaneously. Vision Research 41, pp. 2909-18.
Weber, R., and Harnish, R. 1974. Visual imagery for words: The Hebb test. Journal of Experimental Psychology 3, pp. 409-14.
Witzel, C., Valkova, H., Hansen, T., and Gegenfurtner, K. 2011. Object knowledge modulates colour appearance. i-Perception 2, pp. 13-49.
Zeimbekis, J. 2013. Color and cognitive penetrability. Philosophical Studies 165, pp. 167-75.