Abstract
Conscious perception and attention are difficult to study, partly because their relation to each other is not fully understood. Rather than conceiving and studying them in isolation from each other it may be useful to locate them in an independently motivated, general framework, from which a principled account of how they relate can then emerge. Accordingly, these mental phenomena are here reviewed through the prism of the increasingly influential predictive coding framework. On this framework, conscious perception can be seen as the upshot of prediction error minimization and attention as the optimization of precision expectations during such perceptual inference. This approach maps on well to a range of standard characteristics of conscious perception and attention, and can be used to interpret a range of empirical findings on their relation to each other.
Highlights
The nature of attention is still unresolved, the nature of conscious perception is still a mystery – and their relation to each other is not clearly understood
We note the proposal, which will occupy us in much of the following, that optimization of precision expectations maps on to attention (Friston, 2009). It is this mapping that will give substance to our understanding of the relation between attention and consciousness. It is a promising approach because precision processing, in virtue of its relation to accuracy, has the kind of complex relation to prediction error minimization that seems appropriate for capturing both the commonsense notion that conscious perception and attention are intertwined and the notion that they are separate mechanisms (Koch and Tsuchiya, 2007; Van Boxtel et al, 2010)
INTERPRETING EMPIRICAL FINDINGS IN THE LIGHT OF ATTENTION AS PRECISION OPTIMIZATION The framework for conscious perception sketched in Section “Prediction Error and Precision” implied that studies of the relation between consciousness and attention can be located according to the dimensions of accuracy and precision
Summary
The nature of attention is still unresolved, the nature of conscious perception is still a mystery – and their relation to each other is not clearly understood. Conscious perception can be seen as the upshot of prediction error minimization and attention as the optimization of precision expectations during such perceptual inference.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
