Rich Experience and Sparse Awareness (Paperback)

Paperback. Consciousness is often treated as unitary phenomenon. We challenge this and propose a framework that parses it into two functionally distinct representational media. Reviewing dominant theories, as well as studies of perceptual failures, neural activity, visual search and attention we argue that phenomenal experience arises early as a detailed, analogue, and relatively generic representation of the physical world. Awareness, a later and more idiosyncratic representation of the world, results from enriching phenomenal experience via relevance-filtered semantic knowledge. This Multi-Representational Media (MRM) account unifies perception, memory, and cognition, reconciles rich and sparse consciousness views, and reframes concepts in unconscious cognition research. Consciousness is treated as a unitary phenomenon. This Element proposes a framework that parses it into two representational media. Phenomenal experience arises as a detailed, analogue, and generic representation of the physical world. Awareness results from enriching phenomenal experience via relevance-filtered semantic knowledge. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from our Sydney, NSW warehouse or from our UK or US warehouse, depending on stock availability.…