Criterion placement threatens the construct validity of neural measures of consciousness.
eLife May 28, 2025 Johannes Jacobus Fahrenfort, Philippa A Johnson, Niels A Kloosterman et al. 10 citations
Conservative response criterion placement unexpectedly inflates effect sizes in neural measures of both conscious and unconscious processing, while liberal criterion placement reduces them. Simulations and electroencephalography decoding analyses from two studies using common subjective awareness indicators confirm these confounding effects. The widely used Perceptual Awareness Scale (PAS) does not protect against criterion confounds. Follow-up simulations show that the experimental context determines whether the confounding effect is larger for conscious or unconscious neural measures. Criterion placement threatens the construct validity of neural measures of consciousness.