Recent advances in research on the association between consciousness and unconsciousness in China

Abstract

In recent decades, Chinese scholars have introduced and modified several experimental paradigms for studying consciousness. With the advent of new fields, the paradigms used by Chinese scholars are essentially at the level of those used abroad. More importantly, they have proposed theories of consciousness including the concrete-and-steel model; the model of the interrelationship between consciousness, attention, and stimulus quality; the station monitoring room model; and the emergence theory. These theories have similarities as well as differences with classical theories of consciousness and unconsciousness, and have enriched the theoretical thinking in this field. However, there is still room for considerable theoretical and experimental development of the novel consciousness and unconsciousness research emerging from China; theories must be further developed and additional experimental research conducted in China.

Keywords

China consciousness experimental paradigm theory unconsciousness

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

*Baars

B. J.

(1997). In the theater of consciousness: The workspace of the mind. Oxford University Press.

*Baars

B. J.

(2002). The conscious access hypothesis: Origins and recent evidence. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 6(1), 47–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1364-6613(00)01819-2

*Bos

M. W.

Dijksterhuis

van Baaren

R. B.

(2008). On the goal-dependency of unconscious thought. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44(4), 1114–1120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2008.01.001

Cao

B. L.

Tang

X. W.

(2005). An experimental study on the neural correlates of consciousness. Progress in Natural Science, 15(9), 1025–1031.

*Casali

A. G.

Gosseries

Rosanova

Boly

Sarasso

Casali

K. R.

Casarotto

Bruno

M.-A.

Laureys

Tononi

Massimini

(2013). A theoretically based index of consciousness independent of sensory processing and behavior. Science Translational Medicine, 5(198), Article 198ra105. https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.3006294

*Chalmers

D. J.

(1995a). Facing up to the problem of consciousness. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 2(3), 200–219.

*Chalmers

D. J.

(1995b). The puzzle of conscious experience. Scientific American, 273(6), 80–86. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican1295-80

Chang

J. Z.

(2007). The reconfirmation on implicitness of self-esteem under IAT paradigm. Psychological Exploration, 27(1), 61–64.

Che

W. B.

(1987). Consciousness and unconsciousness. Liaoning People’s Publishing House.

10.

*Cleeremans

(2011). The radical plasticity thesis: How the brain learns to be conscious. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, Article 86. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00086

11.

*Crick

(1989). Neural Edelmanism. Trends in Neurosciences, 12(7), 240–248. https://doi.org/10.1016/0166-2236(89)90019-2

12.

*Crick

Koch

(2003). A framework for consciousness. Nature Neuroscience, 6(2), 119–126. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn0203-119

13.

*Dehaene

Changeux

J.-P.

(2011). Experimental and theoretical approaches to conscious processing. Neuron, 70(2), 200–227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2011.03.018

14.

*Dehaene

Changeux

J.-P.

Naccache

Sackur

Sergent

(2006). Conscious, preconscious, and subliminal processing: A testable taxonomy. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10(5), 204–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2006.03.007

15.

*Dehaene

Naccache

(2001). Towards a cognitive neuroscience of consciousness: Basic evidence and a workspace framework. Cognition, 79(1–2), 1–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0010-0277(00)00123-2

16.

*Duan

Dai

Gong

Chen

(2010). Neural mechanism of unconscious perception of surprised facial expression. NeuroImage, 52(1), 401–407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.04.021

17.

*Edelman

G. M.

(1987). Neural Darwinism: The theory of neuronal group selection. Basic Books.

18.

*Edelman

G. M.

(1989). The remembered present: A biological theory of consciousness. Basic Books.

19.

*Edelman

G. M.

(2001). Consciousness: The remembered present. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 929, 111–122. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2001.tb05711.x

20.

*Edelman

G. M.

Tononi

(2000). A universe of consciousness: How matter becomes imagination. Basic Books.

21.

*Eimer

Maravita

Van Velzen

Husain

Driver

(2002). The electrophysiology of tactile extinction: ERP correlates of unconscious somatosensory processing. Neuropsychologia, 40(13), 2438–2447. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0028-3932(02)00079-9

22.

*El-Hani

C. N.

Pihlström

(2002). Emergence theories and pragmatic realism. Essays in Philosophy, 3(2), Article 3.

23.

G. H.

Jin

Y. B.

(2015). The effect of ecological significance to unexpected stimuli on inattentional blindness: The role of emotional valence and fine degree. Psychological Development and Education, 31(6), 661–667.

24.

Geng

H. Y.

Y. F.

(2002). Stroop effect under divided vs. focused attention: The influence of consciousness. Acta Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Pekinensis (Natural Science Edition), 38(3), 421–426.

25.

*Geng

H. Y.

Zhang

Tao

(2012). Dissociations of subliminal and supraliminal self-face from other-face processing: Behavioral and ERP evidence. Neuropsychologia, 50(12), 2933–2942. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.07.040

26.

Geng

H. Y.

Zhu

(2001a). Conscious and unconscious perception: The trade-offs between attention and stimulus quality. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 33(5), 390–397.

27.

Geng

H. Y.

Zhu

(2001b). Typical and reversed Stroop effect: Unconscious and conscious perception. Journal of Psychological Science, 24(5), 553–556.

28.

Geng

H. Y.

Zhu

Y. F.

(2001). False recognition: Awareness, attention and stimulus quality. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 33(2), 104–110.

29.

*Godfrey-Smith

(2016). Other minds: The octopus, the sea, and the deep origins of consciousness. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

30.

*Greenwald

A. G.

McGhee

D. E.

Schwartz

J. L.

(1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The implicit association test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(6), 1464–1480. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.6.1464

31.

Guo

X. Y.

(2006). Research on the relationship between consciousness and unconsciousness. Psychological Exploration, 26(1), 3–8.

32.

Guo

X. Y.

Yang

Z. L.

(2002). Research on interrelation of explicit and implicit learning. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 34(4), 351–356.

33.

Guo

X. Y.

Yang

Z. L.

Zhou

(2003). Trade-off phenomenon on the contributions of consciousness and unconsciousness: On nonlinguistic recognition. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 35(4), 441–446.

34.

*Horgan

(2015, December 1). Can integrated information theory explain consciousness? Scientific American: Cross-Check. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/can-integrated-information-theory-explain-consciousness

35.

Huang

X. T.

Liang

J. C.

(2002). Experimental study on implicit representation of time. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 34(3), 235–241.

36.

Huo

Y. Q.

(2006). Consciousness psychology. Shanghai Educational Publishing House.

37.

*Jacoby

L. L.

(1991). A process dissociation framework: Separating automatic from intentional uses of memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 30(5), 513–541. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-596X(91)90025-F

38.

Jia

Zhang

C. J.

Zhang

Q. L.

(2016). Cognitive mechanisms of the emotional attentional blink: Evidence from behavior and ERPs. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 48(2), 174–184.

39.

*Kandel

E. R.

Schwartz

J. H.

Jessell

T. M.

(1991). Principles of neural science (3rd ed.). Elsevier.

40.

*Kandel

E. R.

Schwartz

J. H.

Jessell

T. M.

Siegelbaum

S. A.

Hudspeth

A. J.

(2013). Principles of neural science (5th ed.). McGraw-Hill.

41.

*Kihlstrom

J. F.

(1987). The cognitive unconscious. Science, 237(4821), 1445–1452. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-24270-8_18

42.

*Kim

(1999). Making sense of emergence. Philosophical Studies, 95(1), 3–36. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004563122154

43.

Guo

X. Y.

(2007). The implicit learning of rhythms and its characteristics: Evidences from double-dimensional SRT. Journal of Psychological Science, 30(5), 1081–1086.

44.

Liu

L. X.

Cai

Yuan

X. X.

(2012). Unconscious-thought effects take place off-line, not on-line. Journal of Psychological Science, 35(5), 1159–1163.

45.

*Lloyd

A. H.

(1927). Also the emergence of matter. The Journal of Philosophy, 24(12), 309–332. https://doi.org/10.2307/2014247

46.

*Luria

A. R.

(1973). The working brain: An introduction to neuropsychology. Basic Books.

47.

*Massimini

Ferrarelli

Huber

Esser

S. K.

Singh

Tononi

(2005). Breakdown of cortical effective connectivity during sleep. Science, 309(5744), 2228–2232. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1117256

48.

Meng

Y. F.

Guo

C. Y.

(2006). Dissociations between implicit and explicit memory: An ERP study of face recognition. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 38(1), 15–21.

49.

*Nissen

M. J.

Bullemer

(1987). Attentional requirements of learning: Evidence from performance measures. Cognitive Psychology, 19(1), 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(87)90002-8

50.

*Oizumi

Albantakis

Tononi

(2014). From the phenomenology to the mechanisms of consciousness: Integrated information theory 3.0. PLOS Computational Biology, 10(5), Article e1003588. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003588

51.

Pan

(1981). Some personal views of consciousness. Journal of Psychological Science, 2, 1–2.

52.

Pan

(1998). Consciousness: A research of psychology. The Commercial Press.

53.

*Patrick

G. T. W.

(1922). The emergent theory of mind. The Journal of Philosophy, 19(26), 701–708. https://doi.org/10.2307/2939801

54.

*Roediger

H. L.

McDermott

K. B.

(1995). Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21(4), 803–814. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.21.4.803

55.

*Silverstein

B. H.

Snodgrass

Shevrin

Kushwaha

(2015). P3b, consciousness, and complex unconscious processing. Cortex, 73, 216–227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2015.09.004

56.

Zhang

Yuan

X. X.

(2017). Event order-goal-dependency of emergence of unconscious thinking results. Journal of Ningbo University (Educational Science Edition), 39(2), 62–67.

57.

*Sullivan

P. R.

(1995). Contentless consciousness and information-processing theories of mind. Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology, 2(1), 51–59.

58.

Sun

Z. Y.

(2013). Category-selective attention modulates unconscious processing: Evidence from ERP [Master’s thesis, Southwest University, Chongqing, China]. CNKI Dissertations and Theses database. https://kns.cnki.net/KCMS/detail/detail.aspx?dbcode=CMFD&dbname=CMFD201302&filename=1013268236.nh&v=Mjk5MzN5dmxVci9LVkYyNkhiRytGdFBQcVpFYlBJUjhlWDFMdXhZUzdEaDFUM3FUcldNMUZyQ1VSTE9lWnVSdEY=

59.

Tang

X. W.

(2003). Four ingredients theory of consciousness. Chinese Journal of Applied Psychology, 9(3), 10–13.

60.

Tang

X. W.

(2004a). Brain area energy state theory of conscious and unconscious activities. Chinese Journal of Applied Psychology, 10(1), 24–27.

61.

Tang

X. W.

(2004b). Consciousness: The natural science research of consciousness. Higher Education Press.

62.

Tang

X. W.

(2017a). Notes on consciousness. Zhejiang University Press.

63.

Tang

X. W.

(2017b). A quantitative study of consciousness. Journal of Soochou University (Educational Science Edition), 5(3), 1–5.

64.

Tang

X. W.

Huang

B. X.

(2003). Theory of four functional systems of the brain. Chinese Journal of Applied Psychology, 9(2), 3–5.

65.

*Tononi

(2004). An information integration theory of consciousness. BMC Neuroscience, 5, Article 42. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2202-5-42

66.

*Tononi

(2008). Consciousness as integrated information: A provisional manifesto. The Biological Bulletin, 215(3), 216–242. https://doi.org/10.2307/25470707

67.

*Tononi

Koch

(2015). Consciousness: Here, there and everywhere? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 370(1668). https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2014.0167

68.

Wang

S. M.

(2014). Research on the advantage of the implicit learning from the attentional blink of athletes. Journal of Tianjin University of Sport, 29(4), 281–285.

69.

Wang

Y. J.

Tang

X. W.

J. Y.

Zhou

C. L.

(2001). Computational neuroscience research of consciousness. Chinese Science Bulletin, 46(13), 1140–1144.

70.

Wang

Y. J.

Yang

Y. F.

(2003). Consciousness and brain: Multi-disciplinary research and the meaning of them. People’s Publishing House.

71.

*Wang

Z.-M.

(1993). New Chinese approach in psychological research. Psychology and Developing Societies, 5(2), 151–169. https://doi.org/10.1177/097133369300500204

72.

*Windey

Cleeremans

(2015). Consciousness as a graded and an all-or-none phenomenon: A conceptual analysis. Consciousness and Cognition, 35, 185–191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2015.03.002

73.

Xie

C. L.

(2005). Implicit social cognition research: The past and the present. Journal of Psychological Science, 28(1), 146–148.

74.

*Xu

Zhang

Geng

H. Y.

(2018). The effect of eye contact is contingent on visual awareness. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, Article 93. http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00093

75.

*Yang

W. D.

H. S.

(2014). Theoretical psychology in China: Past, present, and future. Theory & Psychology, 24(6), 813–829. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354314555791

76.

Yang

Z. L.

Gao

Guo

L. P.

(1998). More implicity in social cognition. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 30(1), 1–6.

77.

Yang

Z. L.

(2003). Four characteristics of the trade-off phenomenon between consciousness and unconsciousness. Journal of Psychological Science, 26(6), 962–966.

78.

Yang

Z. L.

Liu

S. Z.

Zhong

Y. P.

Gao

Tang

Y. M.

(1997). A study on implicit social cognition. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 29(1), 18–22.

79.

Wang

L. P.

(2013). A research on college students’ implicit identification to socialist core value. Journal of Southwest University (Social Science Edition), 39(5), 86–93.

80.

*Zelazo

P. D.

Moscovitch

Thompson

(Eds.). (2007). The Cambridge handbook of consciousness. Cambridge University Press.

81.

Zhang

Z. J.

Xiao

Huang

X. T.

(2010). The characteristics of implicit time under different dynamic conditions. Journal of Psychological Science, (3), 540–543.

82.

Zheng

X. J.

Cen

G. Z.

(2009). A study on predictors of the relationship between implicit dispositional moral sensitivity and explicit dispositional moral sensitivity. Psychological Development and Education, 25(3), 54–60.

83.

Zhong

J. A.

Zhang

Zhong

J. P.

(2013). The effect of unconscious emotion on advice taking. Chinese Journal of Applied Psychology, 19(1), 42–49.

84.

Zhou

Yang

Z. L.

Qin

J. L.

(2007). Are intentional processes of study list necessary for the creation of false memory: Evidence for unconscious activation. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 39(1), 43–49.