The effects of motivation on unconscious visual processing

• Applicant: Dr. Marcus Rothkirch
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: from 2015 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 269868425

It is well-known that motivation is a key driving force for human behaviour. Simply put, we preferentially perform actions that will lead to favourable outcomes. According to traditional views, pursuing desired goals requires conscious knowledge about the association between actions and outcomes: Individuals decide to perform a particular action based on the conscious evaluation of the associated outcome. In contrast, recent research suggests that motivational influences on behaviour can operate even in the absence of awareness. However, since the study of unconscious processes is methodologically challenging, it has remained unclear how an unconscious but motivationally relevant stimulus can directly affect behaviour. Using a novel methodological approach, the proposed research project will exploit eye movements as a direct behavioural marker for unconscious visual processing. A series of behavioural experiments will be designed to investigate how oculomotor responses are shaped by the motivational relevance of stimuli outside conscious awareness, that is, stimuli that observers cannot correctly locate by means of manual responses. Moreover, to elucidate the neural bases of such motivational effects, the project will employ functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The first fMRI experiment will examine the basic neural mechanisms that drive the guidance of eye gaze by unconscious visual information independent of motivational factors. In a second step, the specific neural processes mediating the influence of motivational relevance in the absence of awareness will be investigated. The proposed project is expected to substantially advance the understanding of how motivational factors guide behaviour in the absence of awareness and how this is implemented in the human brain.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Philipp Sterzer, Ph.D.