Consciousness: the radical plasticity thesis

被引:81
作者
Cleeremans, Axel [1 ]
机构
[1] Univ Libre Bruxelles, Cognit Sci Res Unit, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
来源
MODELS OF BRAIN AND MIND: PHYSICAL, COMPUTATIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACHES | 2008年 / 168卷
关键词
consciousness; learning; subjective experience; neural networks; emotion;
D O I
10.1016/S0079-6123(07)68003-0
中图分类号
Q189 [神经科学];
学科分类号
071006 ;
摘要
In this chapter, I sketch a conceptual framework which takes it as a starting point that conscious and unconscious cognition are rooted in the same set of interacting learning mechanisms and representational systems. On this view, the extent to which a representation is conscious depends in a graded manner on properties such as its stability in time or its strength. Crucially, these properties are accrued as a result of learning, which is in turn viewed as a mandatory process that always accompanies information processing. From this perspective, consciousness is best characterized as involving (1) a graded continuum defined over "quality of representation", such that availability to consciousness and to cognitive control correlates with quality, and (2) the implication of systems of metarepresentations. A first implication of these ideas is that the main function of consciousness is to make flexible, adaptive control over behavior possible. A second, much more speculative implication, is that we learn to be conscious. This I call the "radical plasticity thesis" - the hypothesis that consciousness emerges in systems capable not only of learning about their environment, but also about their own internal representations of it.
引用
收藏
页码:19 / 33
页数:15
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