Awareness reports as inference in a higher-order state space
Year: 2019
Type: preprint
Abstract: Humans have the ability to report the contents of their subjective experience - we can say to each other, am aware of X. However, the decision processes that support reports about mental contents remain poorly understood. In this article I propose a computational framework that characterises awareness reports as metacognitive decisions (inference) about a generative model of perceptual content. This account is motivated from the perspective of how flexible hierarchical state spaces are built during learning and decision-making. Internal states supporting awareness reports, unlike those covarying with perceptual contents, are simple and abstract, varying along a one-dimensional continuum from absent to present. A critical feature of this architecture is that it is both higher-order and asymmetric: there is a vast number of perceptual states is nested under present, but a much smaller number of possible states is nested under absent. Via simulations I show that this asymmetry provides a natural account of observations of global ignition in brain imaging studies of awareness reports.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Author: Stephen M. Fleming
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2947380299