While the visual environment contains large amounts of information, our ability to process this information is limited. Many studies have shown that we can attend only to three or four objects at a time (Pylyshyn and Storm, 1988), and that we may miss large changes in a scene across time (Simons and Levin, 1997). However, the limitations suggested by these studies seem discrepant with our rich subjective experience of the visual environment, as well as with our sophisticated ability to navigate it. A possible solution to this discrepancy is that the visual system acquires certain types of information outside the limited focus of attention. My research examines ways in which we may perceive the visual environment (a) by computing statistical summaries of visual features outside the focus of attention and (b) through the processing of information below the threshold for awareness. We use a variety of behavioral and neuroimaging methods to understand the cognitive and neural mechanisms of ensemble perception and unsconscious information processing.