Attention and perceptual organization Carolyn Dicey Jennings Published online: 27 June 2014 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 Abstract How does attention contribute to perceptual experience? Within cog- nitive science, attention is known to contribute to the organization of sensory fea- tures into perceptual objects, or ‘‘object-based organization.’’ The current paper tackles a different type of organization and thus suggests a different role for attention in conscious perception. Within every perceptual experience we find that more subjectively interesting percepts stand out in the foreground, whereas less subjectively interesting percepts are relegated to the background. The sight of a sycamore often gains the visual foreground for a nature lover, whereas the sound of a violin often gains the auditory foreground for a music lover, but not necessarily vice versa. How does the perceptual system organize early sensory processing according to the subject’s interests? The current paper reveals how this subject- based organization is brought about and maintained through top-down attention. In fact, the current paper argues that top-down attention is necessary for conscious perception in so far as it is necessary for bringing about and maintaining the subject- based organization of perceptual experience. Keywords Attention Á Perception Á Siegel Á Phenomenal contrast Á Treisman C. D. Jennings (&) Philosophy and Cognitive Science, University of California, Merced, 5200N. Lake Road, Merced, CA 95340, USA e-mail: cjennings3@ucmerced.edu 123 Philos Stud (2015) 172:1265–1278 DOI 10.1007/s11098-014-0348-2