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Introduction
Gary D Fisk is a Professor of Psychology at Georgia Southwestern State University. His research interests include the unconscious processing of perception and using PowerPoint in education.
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August 2000 - present
Publications
Publications (32)
This experiment combines examines masked priming with a Psychological Refractory Period design to better assess stimulus awareness. This presentation is being given on November 18, 2023 at 6pm PST.
For unconscious perception research, Bayesian statistics are more appropriate for assessing null awareness of masked stimuli than traditional (frequentist) statistics. This assertion is based mostly upon the theoretical features of Bayesian statistics and modeling studies. To further assess the potential advantages, we compared frequentist and Baye...
Two experiments were conducted to compare the effects of masking and crowding on simple shape perception. The target stimuli were presented in foveal vision, where masking effects are generally investigated and where crowding effects are typically small compared to peripheral vision. The second experiment investigated the potential involvement of t...
Many masked priming studies compare measurements from two conditions: Direct reports of judging heavily masked, briefly presented prime stimuli versus indirect priming effects collected from judgments of easily visible targets. However, comparisons between unequal conditions may introduce a significant interpretational weakness for inferring uncons...
Binary vs. continuous conceptualizations of consciousness may have an unstated influence on experimental designs in unconscious perception research. The binary approach aims to compare a conscious condition (e.g., supraliminal, no or weak stimulus masking) to an unconscious condition (e.g., subliminal, heavy stimulus masking). In contrast, continuo...
In a novel integration of research designs, we tested for unconscious perception effects at an unattended stimulus location using a focused attention paradigm (Lachter, J., Forster, K. I., & Ruthruff, E. 2004. Forty-five years after Broadbent (1958): Still no identification without attention. Psychological Review, 111(4), 880–913. https://doi.org/1...
The Implicit Association Test (IAT) shows little to no correlation with explicit attitudes for a wide range of social groups. A sample of white participants from the rural, southern United States (Sumter County, Georgia) was used to investigate the possibility that more extreme scores on the IAT and the Modern Racism Scale (MRS) would lead to a str...
Two forms of the Stroop task have produced contradictory findings regarding unconscious perceptual processing. Emotional Stroop task studies with prime words presented at an objective threshold (i.e., subliminal) produce Stroop-like effects, but comparable studies conducted with classic Stroop stimuli do not produce Stroop effects. We tested the po...
PowerPoint presentations are a standard feature of most college and high school courses. However, educational outcome studies show that this technology does not consistently improve student learning, thereby raising doubts about the effectiveness of prevailing practices. Slides for Students is a comprehensive analysis of educational studies on the...
A common strategy in unconscious perception research is to use either pattern masking or metacontrast masking to render prime stimuli “invisible” to consciousness. However, several recent studies have questioned whether the identities of prime stimuli (typically arrows or diamonds and squares) in metacontrast masking studies are impossible to consc...
In exclusion task paradigms the participants are shown masked word stimuli with low visibility, then they must complete the stem of the target word with a novel, nonmatching word. Elevated errors (i.e., matching) suggest unconscious perception because the target is perceived, but this perceptual information is apparently not used for properly perfo...
Persaud and McLeod (2008) report that unconscious perception is easier to measure with forced-choice exclusion tasks when the stimuli are highly similar, such as choosing between the letters 'h' and 'b'. The high degree of stimulus similarity may decrease conscious awareness of the target stimuli while leaving unconscious cognition intact. The pres...
A key problem in unconscious perception research is ruling out the possibility that weak conscious awareness of stimuli might explain the results. In the present study, signal detection theory was compared with the objective threshold/strategic model as explanations of results for detection and identification sensitivity in a commonly used unconsci...
The Objective Threshold/Strategic Model (OT/S) proposes that strong, qualitative inferences of unconscious perception can be made if the relationship between perceptual sensitivity (typically priming effects) and stimulus visibility is nonlinear and nonmonotonic. The model proposes a nadir in priming effects at the objective identification threshol...
The concept of unconscious perception has generated continual controversy throughout psychology's history. We propose that much of cognitive psychology rests on mistaken or tacit assumptions that significant, high-level (e.g., semantic) processing occurs outside the realm of consciousness. A key issue in this controversy is the measurement of consc...
Elevations in exclusion error rates (i.e., responding with the target stimulus despite instructions to the contrary) in experiments with masked, briefly presented stimuli have been attributed to unconscious perception. The present studies tested the validity of exclusion methods for studying unconscious perception. Experiment 1 replicated Merikle,...
Systematic failure to perform exclusion (making a response that opposes the participant's natural inclinations) for briefly displayed, masked words has been interpreted as evidence of unconscious perception. The present study required participants to make a forced-choice exclusion after viewing masked word targets. The forced-choice exclusion task...
Useful field of view is a measure of information processing in peripheral vision that has potential for predicting impaired driving performance. The present study was performed to examine whether common neuropsychological deficits resulting from stroke might be associated with useful field of view impairment. 46 stroke survivors had impaired useful...
Most investigations of unconscious perception use a dissociation design in which an awareness variable (e.g., detection) is compared with a perceptual processing variable (e.g., identification). Unconscious perception is inferred when the awareness variable lacks sensitivity to the stimulus but evidence of perceptual processing is still obtained. I...
In this commentary, we discuss the strengths and limitations of Snodgrass, Bernat, and Shevrin's (2004) theory of unconscious perception. Our commentary centers on the value of signal detection theory (SDT) to understanding the unconscious perception controversy, a value that Snodgrass et al. for the most part agree with (i.e., that most approaches...
To elucidate the relationships among vision, attention, driving status, and self-reported driving behaviors in community-dwelling stroke survivors.
A cross-sectional design to compare stroke survivors to older adults without stroke on visual measures, attentional measures, and self-reported driving behaviors.
Rehabilitation center at a university h...
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivors often have sensory and cognitive impairments that may interfere with driving ability. The Useful Field of View (UFOV) is a measure of visual information processing that is a good predictor of vehicle crash risk in older adults.
The objective of this study was to explore the possibility that UFOV is compromised...
The present experiments extend the scope of the independent observation model based on signal detection theory (Macmillan & Creelman, 1991) to complex (word) stimulus sets. In the first experiment, the model predicts the relationship between uncertain detection and subsequent correct identification, thereby providing an alternative interpretation t...
The infralimbic cortex (IL) of the rat can modify autonomic nervous system activity, but the critical pathway(s) that mediate this influence are unclear. To define the potential pathways, the first series of experiments characterizes the descending projections of IL and the neighboring cortical areas using Phaseolus vulgaris leucoagglutinin (PHA-L)...
Past studies indicate that distinct areas of anterior midline cortex in the rat contribute to diverse functions, such as autonomic nervous system regulation and learning, but the anatomical substrate for these functions has not been fully elucidated. The present study characterizes the associational connections within the midline cortex of the rat...
Survivors of traumatic brain injury often have long-term sensory, cognitive and motor deficits that may impair vehicle operation. However, relatively little is known about the driving status and driving characteristics of brain injury survivors. To better understand driving following traumatic brain injury, a survey of driving status, driving expos...
Little is known about the extent to which stroke survivors return to driving and the advice and/or evaluations they receive about driving. This study sought to estimate the prevalence of driving after stroke and to determine whether stroke survivors receive advice and evaluation about driving.
A convenience sample of stroke survivors was surveyed r...
Electrical stimulation of area infraradiata in the rat evokes transient changes in arterial pressure, but the locations that evoke these responses have not been mapped by neurochemical methods. To localize more specifically the regions of area infraradiata that modify cardiovascular activity, the present study measured cardiovascular responses to l...
In very old, normotensive rats, a disorganization occurs selectively in the retrosplenial cortex, and a similar disorganization occurs in this area in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) at a much earlier age. Since this breakdown compromises a neural circuit involved in learning and memory, this study tests the hypotheses that these functions ar...
Questions
Questions (2)
I am seeking a stimulus set for the emotional Stroop task that can reliably produce an effect in normal adults. The ideal stimulus set would have English emotional words (negative valence) and neutral words that are matched in frequency, length, and orthographic characteristics.
My book on teaching with PowerPoint, Slides for Students, is currently available for FREE as a .pdf download. UNG Press is making this special offer to help educators cope with the COVID-19 virus emergency. This book was written for educators but research scientists and other professionals might find useful ideas too.
The download link is on the book's home page at UNG Press:
More information about the book is available at this online Sway presentation:
Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or would like to know more.