You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
From a neuroscience perspective, it is usually assumed that many higher cortical functions proceed without conscious awareness. In a recent overview paper in Science, Kihlstrom (1987) presented data from multiple sources that demonstrate that this is true for human beings as well as for other animals. From this perspective, consciousness, rather than unconscious mental life, is more the exception and the mystery. It is only from the perspective of the conscious subjective self, and a science based on that self in ways and to an extent that it is often unaware, that unconscious processes have been deemed unusual and mysterious.
The experimental study of unconscious cortical processes, however, has proved difficult and controversial despite their apparent ubiquity. The difficulty has centered on the problem of demonstrating that experimental stimuli are indeed processed without conscious awareness. Several laboratory methods have been created for this purpose, subjected to close critical scrutiny (cf. Eriksen, 1960; Holender, 1986) and then modified in response to the criticisms. This process, extending across nearly 40 years, has led to the development of methods that at least in recent years have enabled laboratory scientists to study unconscious cortical processes with confidence and rigor.