Ezequiel Morsella
Biographic Data
| ID | 3530055 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ezequiel Morsella |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ezequiel |
| FAMILY NAME | Morsella |
| SIGNATURE | MORSELLA E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, San Francisco |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8649-5520 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 16 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 23 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Involuntary mental imagery is influenced by visual salience
The attention bottleneck theory suggests that object recognition is limited to one item at a time. A default attentional set may guide attention to unique items when no specific goal is present. The Reflexive Imagery Task (RIT) examines involuntary mental imagery by asking participants not to think of the name of a centrally presented object. Surprisingly, mental imagery occurs on many trials. This study investigates whether similar effects happe…
The priming of stimulus-elicited involuntary mental imagery
Percepts, urges, and even high-level cognitions often enter the conscious field involuntarily. The Reflexive Imagery Task (RIT) was designed to investigate experimentally the nature of such entry into consciousness. In the most basic version of the task, participants are instructed not to subvocalize the names of visual objects. Involuntary subvocalizations arise on the majority of the trials. Can these effects be influenced by priming? In our ex…
Stimulus-elicited involuntary autobiographical memories
The reflexive imagery task (RIT) has been used to investigate stimulus-elicited involuntary mental processes. The task has been successful in eliciting involuntary perceptual experiences, urges, and even higher-order cognitions, but it has never been used to elicit autobiographical memories, even though in everyday life these memories are often activated involuntarily by external stimuli. These memories are different in interesting ways from the …
The habituation of higher-order conscious processes
A recurring idea in psychology is that one is conscious only of the "outputs" of mental operations, but not of the operations themselves. Often, such "entry into consciousness" occurs involuntarily. To investigate involuntary entry, some experimentalists have used the reflexive imagery task (RIT). The RIT has revealed that, under certain conditions, external stimuli (e.g., line drawings) can elicit involuntary entry of high-level cognitions. In t…
Involuntary refreshing of mental representations
Laboratory tasks have revealed that mental representations (e.g., mental imagery) can enter consciousness in a manner that is involuntary, reliable, and insuppressible. These effects illuminate the capacities of involuntary processes as well as the function of voluntary, conscious processing. The Reflexive Imagery Task was developed a decade ago to investigate these involuntary effects systematically. Can refreshing yield such involuntary effects…
Stimulus-Elicited Involuntary Cognition
For decades, researchers have been presenting participants with stimuli and instructing the participants not to respond to the stimuli in some way. Today, researchers are studying the effects that such stimuli have, not only on behavior, but on conscious experience. To this end, researchers have used several laboratory tasks, including the reflexive imagery task (RIT). In the RIT, participants are instructed not to respond in a specific way to st…
Involuntary attentional shifts as a function of set and processing fluency
Involuntary mental rotation and visuospatial imagery from external control
The Reflexive Imagery Task (RIT) was developed to investigate the entry into consciousness of involuntary imagery. Subjects are presented with objects and instructed to not think of the names of the objects. Involuntary subvocalizations arise on many trials. RIT effects reveal the capacities of involuntary processing. These cognitions do not require symbol manipulation. Can mental rotation and visuospatial imagery, too, arise in this involuntary …
Involuntary polymodal imagery involving olfaction, audition, touch, taste, and vision
Externally controlled involuntary cognitions and their relations with other representations in consciousness
Conscious contents as reflexive processes
External control of the stream of consciousness
Subjective aspects of working memory performance
Conscious thoughts from reflex-like processes
Did I read or did I name? Diminished awareness of processes yielding identical ‘outputs’
Mind control? Creating illusory intentions through a phony brain–computer interface
The essence of conscious conflict
Conflict constitutes one of the fundamental "tuggings and pullings" of the human experience. Yet, the link between the various kinds of conflict in the nervous system and subjective experience remains unexplained. The authors tested a hypothesis that predicts why both the "hot" conflicts involving self-control and motivation and the "cooler" response conflicts of the laboratory lead to changes in subjective experience. From this standpoint, these…
Indirect cognitive control through top‐down activation of perceptual symbols
The Unconscious Mind
The unconscious mind is still viewed by many psychological scientists as the shadow of a “real” conscious mind, though there now exists substantial evidence that the unconscious is not identifiably less flexible, complex, controlling, deliberative, or action-oriented than is its counterpart. This “conscious-centric” bias is due in part to the operational definition within cognitive psychology that equates unconscious with subliminal. We review th…
Muscular Activity in the Arm during Lexical Retrieval
The Function of Phenomenal States
The function of phenomenal states remains a mystery, primarily because of the prevalent, a priori view that these states serve no functional role. This note is a call to arms against this uncorroborated and counterproductive view, which continues to stifle research on the topic. It is proposed that, given what we know and can accomplish with the tools at hand, discovering the function of phenomenal states has become a tractable problem, easier th…
The Function of Phenomenal States
Inferring speakers’ physical attributes from their voices
Inferring speakers’ physical attributes from their voices
The Function of Phenomenal States
The function of phenomenal states remains a mystery, primarily because of the prevalent, a priori view that these states serve no functional role. This note is a call to arms against this uncorroborated and counterproductive view, which continues to stifle research on the topic. It is proposed that, given what we know and can accomplish with the tools at hand, discovering the function of phenomenal states has become a tractable problem, easier th…
The Function of Phenomenal States
Muscular Activity in the Arm during Lexical Retrieval
The Unconscious Mind
The unconscious mind is still viewed by many psychological scientists as the shadow of a “real” conscious mind, though there now exists substantial evidence that the unconscious is not identifiably less flexible, complex, controlling, deliberative, or action-oriented than is its counterpart. This “conscious-centric” bias is due in part to the operational definition within cognitive psychology that equates unconscious with subliminal. We review th…
The essence of conscious conflict
Conflict constitutes one of the fundamental "tuggings and pullings" of the human experience. Yet, the link between the various kinds of conflict in the nervous system and subjective experience remains unexplained. The authors tested a hypothesis that predicts why both the "hot" conflicts involving self-control and motivation and the "cooler" response conflicts of the laboratory lead to changes in subjective experience. From this standpoint, these…
Indirect cognitive control through top‐down activation of perceptual symbols
Mind control? Creating illusory intentions through a phony brain–computer interface
Did I read or did I name? Diminished awareness of processes yielding identical ‘outputs’
Conscious thoughts from reflex-like processes
Subjective aspects of working memory performance
External control of the stream of consciousness
Conscious contents as reflexive processes
Externally controlled involuntary cognitions and their relations with other representations in consciousness
Involuntary polymodal imagery involving olfaction, audition, touch, taste, and vision
Involuntary mental rotation and visuospatial imagery from external control
The Reflexive Imagery Task (RIT) was developed to investigate the entry into consciousness of involuntary imagery. Subjects are presented with objects and instructed to not think of the names of the objects. Involuntary subvocalizations arise on many trials. RIT effects reveal the capacities of involuntary processing. These cognitions do not require symbol manipulation. Can mental rotation and visuospatial imagery, too, arise in this involuntary …
Involuntary attentional shifts as a function of set and processing fluency
The habituation of higher-order conscious processes
A recurring idea in psychology is that one is conscious only of the "outputs" of mental operations, but not of the operations themselves. Often, such "entry into consciousness" occurs involuntarily. To investigate involuntary entry, some experimentalists have used the reflexive imagery task (RIT). The RIT has revealed that, under certain conditions, external stimuli (e.g., line drawings) can elicit involuntary entry of high-level cognitions. In t…
Involuntary refreshing of mental representations
Laboratory tasks have revealed that mental representations (e.g., mental imagery) can enter consciousness in a manner that is involuntary, reliable, and insuppressible. These effects illuminate the capacities of involuntary processes as well as the function of voluntary, conscious processing. The Reflexive Imagery Task was developed a decade ago to investigate these involuntary effects systematically. Can refreshing yield such involuntary effects…
Stimulus-Elicited Involuntary Cognition
For decades, researchers have been presenting participants with stimuli and instructing the participants not to respond to the stimuli in some way. Today, researchers are studying the effects that such stimuli have, not only on behavior, but on conscious experience. To this end, researchers have used several laboratory tasks, including the reflexive imagery task (RIT). In the RIT, participants are instructed not to respond in a specific way to st…
The priming of stimulus-elicited involuntary mental imagery
Percepts, urges, and even high-level cognitions often enter the conscious field involuntarily. The Reflexive Imagery Task (RIT) was designed to investigate experimentally the nature of such entry into consciousness. In the most basic version of the task, participants are instructed not to subvocalize the names of visual objects. Involuntary subvocalizations arise on the majority of the trials. Can these effects be influenced by priming? In our ex…
Stimulus-elicited involuntary autobiographical memories
The reflexive imagery task (RIT) has been used to investigate stimulus-elicited involuntary mental processes. The task has been successful in eliciting involuntary perceptual experiences, urges, and even higher-order cognitions, but it has never been used to elicit autobiographical memories, even though in everyday life these memories are often activated involuntarily by external stimuli. These memories are different in interesting ways from the …
Involuntary mental imagery is influenced by visual salience
The attention bottleneck theory suggests that object recognition is limited to one item at a time. A default attentional set may guide attention to unique items when no specific goal is present. The Reflexive Imagery Task (RIT) examines involuntary mental imagery by asking participants not to think of the name of a centrally presented object. Surprisingly, mental imagery occurs on many trials. This study investigates whether similar effects happe…
Psychology (22 works) · Cognitive psychology (19 works) · Neuroscience (19 works) · Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies (17 works) · Cognition (13 works) · Consciousness (12 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Perception (7 works) · Action Observation and Synchronization (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works)