Volume 114, Issue 1, January 2017
Wayne Wu
Pages 5-32
Shaking Up the Mind’s Ground Floor: The Cognitive Penetration of Visual Attention
This paper discusses the cognitive penetration of visual attention by intention, a form of top-down modulation where cognitive states directly influence visual processing. In the current literature, the case for cognitive penetration is largely made based on behavioral data. However, in the case of attention, the plausibility of cognitive penetration is secured by unpacking the nature of attention in the context of a computational model of attention-related visual processing. Attention thus provides the best empirical case for cognitive penetration. Additionally, the paper highlights the epistemic consequences of the cognitive penetration of vision by a subject’s cognitive and other biases.