| FORM: | ARTICLE |
| Author: | Natsoulas, Thomas |
| Affiliation: | U California, Dept of Psychology, Davis, CA, US |
| Title: | A commentary system for consciousness?! |
| Source: | Journal of Mind & Behavior, 1999 Spr, 1999. 20 (2): p.155-181Reference. |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects: | Thesaurus terms: Consciousness States Theories |
| Added Keywords: | locus & nature & character of consciousness, a critique of L. Weiskrantz’s commentary hypothesis for consciousness |
| Classification Code: | Consciousness States (2380) |
| Population Terms: Human | |
| Abstract: | Critiques a proposal that L. Weiskrantz published in his book,Consciousness Lost and Found: A Neurophysiological Exploration(1997), on brain-damaged individuals.It is a proposal regarding the locus, nature, and character of consciousness in general.Every instance of being conscious, or aware, or having experience of anything (O), is supposed to be identical to either one of three kinds of activity of a commentary system in the brain that correspond to the Skinnerian distinction between overt, covert, and incipient responses.Any human or animal who is experiencing O at the present moment is therein either (a) commenting on O to someone else; (b) commenting on O to himself or herself, overtly or covertly; or (c) occurrently tending to comment on O, overtly or covertly, either to someone else or to himself or herself.This third form of experience of O is made up of a certain portion of a process in the commentary system that constitutes overt or covert commenting on O. Although the identification of awareness with commentary is Weiskrantz’s stated preference, the current author questions Weiskrantz’s implication that commentary behavior is not required equally by different kinds of awareness. ((c) 1999 APA/PsycINFO, all rights reserved) |