The No-Report Paradigm: A Revolution in Consciousness Research?
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience May 11, 2022 Irem Duman, Isabell Sophia Ehmann, Alicia Ronnie Gonsalves et al.
In consciousness research, participants are typically asked to report what they consciously experience, but this may conflate the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) with attention or metacognition. To avoid this, researchers have adopted no-report paradigms, which rely on comparing conditions with and without report. However, analysis of several such comparisons reveals alternative interpretations and methodological issues beyond the earlier criticism that merely removing report does not prevent metacognitive reflection. Without a task, the conscious mind tends to turn inward, switching between external stimuli and daydreaming or mind-wandering. Thus, no-report paradigms may instead capture the neural correlates of conscious disengagement, reaffirming that they are no less problematic than report paradigms.