From the Visible to the Invisible: On the Phenomenal Gradient of Appearance.
Brain Sciences January 21, 2026 Baingio Pinna, Daniele Porcheddu, Jurģis Šķilters
Human visual perception organizes object attributes along a 'phenomenal gradient'—a syntactic, hierarchical ordering by perceptual salience—whereas artificial intelligence responses, though geometrically precise, lack capabilities such as shape prioritization, causal inference, amodal completion, and perception of visible invisibles. Comparing human and AI responses to modified square images reveals that human visual processing involves complex mechanisms that model-generated descriptions fail to capture. This work introduces the phenomenal gradient as a descriptive framework and provides an initial comparative analysis that motivates testable hypotheses for future studies, rather than making direct claims about improving AI. The findings suggest a more integrated approach to studying visual consciousness, bridging phenomenology, information theory, and cognitive science.