Question
Who and where wrote: " In general, when subjects comply with their instructions
in an experiment, this is seen as unproblematic evidence that they have been able
to comply with the instructions because they have consciously experienced
the relevant stimulus events. That's why the following preparatory instruction would
be viewed nonsensical:
Whenever you are conscious of the light going on, press the button on the left;
whenever the light goes on but you are not conscious of it going on,
press the button on the right.
How on earth could a subject comply with this? You would be asking the subject
to do the impossible: to condition his behavior on occurrences that are inaccessible
to him. It would be like saying "raise your hand whenever someone winks at you
without your knowing it."
An experimenter wouldn't feel the need to insert the adverb "consciously," as in
Whenever you consciously hear a tone, make a guess
since the standard assumption is that one can't condition one's policies on
unconscious experiments, even if such things occur. To adopt the policy
Whenever x happens, do y
you have to be able to be conscious of x happening."?