Enhanced but Indeterminate? How Attention Colors our World

Lopez, Azenet L. and Simsova, Eliska (2023): Enhanced but Indeterminate? How Attention Colors our World. In: Review of Philosophy and Psychology [Forthcoming]

Abstract

Attention makes things look brighter and more colorful. In light of these effects, representationalist philosophers propose that attentive experiences represent more determinate color properties than inattentive experiences. Although this claim is appealing, we argue that it does not hold for one of our best conceptualizations of content determinacy, according to which an experience has more determinate contents if it represents a narrower range of values within the relevant dimension. We argue that our current empirical evidence fails to show that attention has this kind of effect on color perception. We then offer an alternative, representationalist-friendly account of the attentional effects, as changes in vividness.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Religious Science
• Subjects: 100 Philosophy and Psychology > 100 Philosophy
• ISSN: 1878-5158
• Annotation: First published online
• Language: English