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Phenomenal consciousness and cognitive access.

Morten Overgaard1

  • 1CFIN, Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit, Aarhus University, 800 Aarhus C, Denmark morten.storm.overgaard@cfin.au.dk.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences
|August 1, 2018
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

This study reviews evidence on phenomenal consciousness versus access consciousness, finding no data supports content overflow. It argues overflow is difficult to prove, especially if access means cognitive availability.

Keywords:
accessconsciousnessphenomenal consciousnesssubjective experience

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Philosophy of Mind
  • Consciousness Studies

Background:

  • Distinction between phenomenal consciousness (subjective experience) and access consciousness (cognitive availability) is key in consciousness research.
  • Recent scientific efforts aim to empirically separate phenomenal content from cognitive access.
  • Ned Block's hypothesis suggests phenomenal content can 'overflow' cognitive access.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review existing evidence regarding the separation of phenomenal consciousness and cognitive access.
  • To evaluate the empirical support for the 'overflow' hypothesis.
  • To explore the theoretical possibility and empirical challenges of demonstrating overflow.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review of empirical studies in consciousness research.
  • Conceptual analysis of 'cognitive access' and 'phenomenal content'.
  • Argumentation based on definitions of access (working memory, attention, cognitive availability).

Main Results:

  • Current empirical data does not demonstrate that phenomenal content overflows cognitive access.
  • Overflow is theoretically possible but empirically challenging to demonstrate.
  • The possibility of demonstrating overflow depends critically on the definition of 'cognitive access'.

Conclusions:

  • If 'cognitive access' is narrowly defined as working memory or attention, empirical demonstration of overflow is difficult.
  • If 'cognitive access' is broadly defined as information being 'cognitively available', then a separation from subjective experience is impossible.
  • The relationship between phenomenal consciousness and cognitive access remains a complex and debated topic in consciousness research.