Give an example of such an experiment.
There are many.
Here's a
study on the similarities and differences between the storage of conscious and unconscious memories: The brain performs that function in both cases, but somewhat differently.
Here's
a study on hemineglect, one of many demonstrating that perception, processing, and response are handled with and without the involvement of consciousness.
The study which discovered the "signature" waves, which I cited above, demonstrates that perception of external stimuli occurs consciously and non-consciously. The cocktail party effect is another example of that.
Here's
an article on the role of non-conscious processing on goal-directed learning. There are also studies showing that certain people who are blind -- because they are not consciously aware of any visual input -- can learn to navigate mazes, demonstrating that some non-conscious parts of their brains are still processing the information and learning from it.
An intriguing study on the role of non-conscious processing on complex decison-making.
An interesting little experiment teasing out the border between what is and is not made accessible to conscious awareness.
This basic science, Salti says, won't immediately provide marketers with the basis for a new and advanced kind of subliminal advertising. But it may answer long-debated questions about the mysterious nexus between our conscious and unconscious minds.
In their study, the researchers measured neural activity related to conscious perception. They connected test subjects to an electroencephalograph (EEG) that measured their brain activity, then exposed them to rapid visual stimuli -- square cubes on a computer screen that flashed on and off very quickly. Participants were instructed to indicate whether they had seen the stimulus and to report its location on the screen.
Some participants were able to identify where the stimulus appeared, but could not identify it as a square cube, allowing the researchers to explore how brain activity correlated with conscious perception.
The thing is, this is so well established by experiment that there's no longer any doubt about it.
Our brains not only can, but constantly do, perceive the world, make decisions about it, respond to it, remember it, and learn from it without bothering to involve our conscious awareness at all.
And this is the problem with a lot of the so-called explanations of consciousness bandied about on so many of these threads.
It is not enough to describe a process that encompasses -- or even explains -- perception, processing, memory, and response. Because all of that can happen with or without the engagement of conscious awareness.
To explain consciousness, we must have a description of a physical mechanism that distinguishes those processes involved in conscious awareness from those which are not.
And if it is truly explanatory, it must also explain why we have this sense of felt experience which starts when we wake up and stops when we fall sleep.
Not only that, but it should also explain why consciousness exists in the first place.
It cannot be simply to perceive, process, record, respond, and even learn from experience, because all of that can be done without consciousness, which is a resource-intensive function and would not have evolved unless it were contributing something very important above and beyond those basic functions.
My feeling is that it evolved to handle higher-level decision-making which the non-conscious modules simply can't handle, and to make calls when these are in conflict with each other.
