Behavioural Methods in Consciousness Research

Edited by Morten Overgaard

Written at an introductory level, this book guides newcomers to consciousness research, making it of value to anyone interested in research methods, not just consciousness research but also psychology or cognitive neuroscience at large
Contains sufficient reflections and descriptions of methodology for scientists and researchers to apply it directly to their own research
Includes chapters written by highly experienced researchers in the field of consciousness

Behavioural Methods in Consciousness Research

Edited by Morten Overgaard

Description

The past two decades have seen a surge of interest in the topic of consciousness, with the result that the research literature has expanded greatly. However, until now, there has been little consensus on just which methods are the most effective for the study of consciousness. As a result, a wide range of experimental paradigms have been employed, sometimes making it different to compare and contrast experimental findings.

'Behavioural methods in consciousness research' is the first book of its kind, providing an overview of methods and approaches for studying consciousness. The chapters are written by leading researchers and experts, who describe the methods they actually use in their own studies, along with their pitfalls, problems, and difficulties.

For all students and researchers embarking on research in this area - and even seasoned researchers - this book is a valuable source of information in helping them design, perform, and analyse scientifically rigorous experiments.

Behavioural Methods in Consciousness Research

Edited by Morten Overgaard

Section One Introduction
1. Consciousness research methods: The empirical "hard problem", Morten Overgaard
2. The challenge of measuring consciousness, Morten Overgaard
3. How can we measure awareness? An overview of current methods, Bert Timmermans and Axel Cleeremans
Section Two Experimental Paradigms
4. Unmasking the pitfalls of the masking method in consciousness research, Talis Bachmann
5. A Behavioral Method to Manipulate Metacognitive Awareness Independent of Stimulus Awareness, Man Song, Ai Koizumi, and Hakwan C. Lau
6. Inferences about Consciousness Using Subjective Reports of Confidence, Maxine Sherman, Adam B. Barrett and Ryota Kanai
7. Direct and indirect measures of statistical learning, Arnaud Destrebecqz, Ana Franco, Julie Bertels and Vinciane Gaillard
8. Binocular rivalry and other forms of visual bistability, J.W. Brascamp
Section Three: Subjective Measures
9. Measuring consciousness with confidence ratings, Elisabeth Norman & Mark C. Price
10. Intentional Binding: A measure of agency, Mads Jensen, Steven Di Costa and Patrick Haggard
11. Using the Perceptual Awareness Scale (PAS), Kristian Sandberg and Morten Overgaard
Section Four: Analysis and Statistics
12. How Bayesian statistics are needed to determine whether mental states are unconscious, Zoltan Dienes
13. Handling the p - and how real evidence goes beyond p-values, Kim Mouridsen
Section Five: Metachapters
14. Variability, convergence and dimensions of consciousness, Colin Klein and Jakob Hohwy

Behavioural Methods in Consciousness Research

Edited by Morten Overgaard

Author Information

Morten Overgaard, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Professor of Neuropsychology, Aarhus University and Aalborg University

Morten Overgaard is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Aarhus University and of Neuropsychology at Aalborg University. He started his career developing his own research group (Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit/CNRU) and his own approach to studying and thinking about consciousness. He has headed several national and international research projects, integrating aspects of neuroscience, psychology and philosophy in order to answer a variety of questions in basic research and clinical practice. His primary focus is however what is considered to be the perhaps most challenging research question in history: Why are we conscious? How can it be that physical processes in the brain seem to be accompanied with subjective experience?

Contributors:

Professor Talis Bachmann, University of Tartu, Estonia
Dr Adam B Barrett, Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science and Department of Informatics, University of Sussex, UK
Dr Julie Bertels, Consciousness, Cognition & Computation Group (C03) Center for Research in Cognition & Neurosciences (CRCN) ULB Institute of Neurosciences (UNI) Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Assistant Professor Jan Brascamp, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Professor Axel Cleeremans, Consciousness, Cognition & Computation Group Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Assistant Professor Arnaud Destrebecqz, Consciousness, Cognition & Computation Group (C03) Center for Research in Cognition & Neurosciences (CRCN) ULB Institute of Neurosciences (UNI) Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Professor Zoltan Dienes, School of Psychology, University of Sussex, UK
Mr Steven Di Costa, UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, UK
Dr Ana Franco, Unité de Recherche en Neurosciences Cognitives (Unescog) Center for Research in Cognition & Neurosciences (CRCN) ULB Institute of Neurosciences (UNI) Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Dr Vinciane Gaillard, Consciousness, Cognition & Computation Group (C03) Center for Research in Cognition & Neurosciences (CRCN) ULB Institute of Neurosciences (UNI) Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Professor Patrick Haggard, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Department of Psychology University College London, UK
Dr Jakob Hohwy, Monash University, Faculty of Arts, Australia
Mads Jensen, Hammel Neurorehabilitation & Research Center, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark
Dr Ryota Kanai, Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
Dr Colin Klein, Macquarie University, Australia
Dr Ai Koizumi, US-Japan Brain Research Cooperation Program, Department of Psychology, Columbia University, USA
Professor C. Hakwan Lau, Colombia University, USA
Associate Professor Kim Mouridsen, Department of Clinical Medicine - Center for Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Denmark
Associate Professor Elisabeth Norman, University of Bergen, Norway
Associate Professor Mark C. Price, Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Norway
Professor Morten Overgaard, CNRU Aalborg University, Denmark
Dr Kristian Sandberg, Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit, Hammel Neurorehabilitation Centre and University Research Clinic, Aarhus University, Denmark
Ms Maxine T. Sherman, Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
Amanda M. Song, Cognitive Science Department, University of California, San Diego, USA
Dr Bert Timmermans, School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, UK

Behavioural Methods in Consciousness Research

Edited by Morten Overgaard

From Our Blog

Morten Overgaard on consciousness

Why are we conscious? How can it be that physical processes in the brain seem to be accompanied with subjective experience? As technology has advanced, psychologists and neuroscientists have been able to observe brain activity. But with an explosion in experiments, methods, and measurements, there has also been great confusion.

Posted on March 19, 2015

Read the blog post