p.5 Conscious experience is hard to study because we cannot easily
stand outside of it, to observe the effects of its presence and absence.
p.5 The difficulty in studying unconscious processes is even more obvious - by definition, we cannot
directly observe them at all. Unconscious processes can only be inferred, based on our own experience and on observation
of others.
p.20 There is evidence suggesting that "unattended" streams of information are processed and represented
even though they are not conscious
p.20-21 There is evidence that perceptual events are processed for some time before they become conscious,
so that there are apparently unconscious input representations
p.21 there are many contextual representations and processes that shape a perceptual interpretation, but
which are not themselves conscious
p.39 Two more current ideas deserve discussion before we can go on. They are, first, the idea that the function
of consciousness is to "glue" together separable perceptual features (Treisman & Gelade, 1980) and second, that consciousness
or attention creates access to information-processing resources in the nervous system (Navon & Gopher, 1979). If we combine
these ideas with the previous conceptions of attention and immediate memory, we come very close to the theoretical approach
advanced in this book.
p.41 The idea that attention or consciousness involves access to processing resources is very powerful,
and is a major aspect of the theory advanced in this book. Notice that most of the processing resources in the nervous system
are unconscious, so that we have the remarkable situation of conscious events being used to gain access to unconscious processing
resources.
p.43 Unconscious events are treated in this book as the functioning of specialized
systems. The roots of this view can be found in the everyday observation that as we gain some skill or knowledge, it tends
to becomes less and less conscious in its details. Our most proficient skills are generally the least conscious.
We will first explore the properties of unconscious representations; then see how representations are involved in unconscious
information processing; this in turn leads to the notion of specialized unconscious processors.
p.45 Human knowledge can be naturally viewed as a way of representing the world and ourselves... We can
think of knowledge, percepts, images, plans, intentions, and memories as representations.
p.46 The Orienting Response (OR) is a set of physiological changes that take place when an animal detects
a new event. Any animal will orient its eyes, ears, and nose toward the new event
p.55 Clear evidence has emerged in recent decades for "feature detectors" in perception.
p.61 All these sources of evidence suggest there are indeed many intelligent, unconscious processors
in the nervous system.
p.61 In this book we cannot do justice to even one kind of unconscious specialist, and we will not try.
Rather, we treat specialists here as the "bricks" for building an architecture of the nervous system, concentrating on the
role of conscious experience in this architecture. Of course, we must specify in general what these bricks are like.
p.73 Almost everything we do, we do better unconsciously than consciously.... we are unconscious
of the complexity of whatever we know already... Any task improves with practice, and as it becomes more efficient it also
becomes less consciously available. Thus anything we do well, we do largely unconsciously. But then what advantage
is there to being conscious at all?
p.135 Repeated events tend to fade from consciousness, yet they continue to be processed unconsciously.
To be conscious an event must be novel or significant; it must apparently trigger widespread adaptive processing in the nervous
system.
p.203 Conceptual and goal processes can similarly be viewed as sensitive to information - to distinctions
that make a difference, that trigger adaptive processes.
p.307 automatic attention must surely work as well... the spontaneous flow of thought is highly sensitive
to current personal significance... Automatic attention is guided by goals
