Behavioral Methods in Consciousness Research

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 difficult to compare and contrast experimental findings. 'Behavioral 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 analyze scientifically rigorous experiments.

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

About the Author :
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?