Consciousness and the Social Brain by Graziano Michael S. A

Author:Graziano, Michael S. A. [Graziano, Michael S. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-09-17T16:00:00+00:00

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Consciousness as Integrated Information

In the previous chapter I discussed one of the most common theoretical approaches to consciousness—the social construction of consciousness. A second common theoretical approach is to attribute consciousness to informational complexity and in particular to the linking, or binding, or integration of information in the brain. The social approach and the integrated information approach to consciousness are quite different and in some ways have been viewed as rivals. Yet the attention schema theory could be seen as a way of fusing the two approaches.

In the attention schema theory, awareness is a computed feature. It is descriptive information—call it information set A. To be aware of X is to bind or integrate the information that depicts X with the information set A. When you report that you are aware of X, it is because cognitive machinery in your brain has accessed that large, brain-spanning set of information, A + X, and is summarizing it. You are reporting that X comes with the properties of A attached to it. The attention schema theory works only so far as the proposed attention schema can be bound to other chunks of information. It is an integrated information approach to consciousness just as much as it is a social approach.

This chapter describes the integrated information approach to consciousness, beginning with the early versions of that line of thinking, and then discussing some of the potential strengths and weaknesses of the approach and how it may relate specifically to the attention schema theory.

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