```todoist name: Today filter: "Today | Overdue" ``` # Summary of Structuring the Mind by Watzl Chapter 8 **The Appearance View of Phenomenal Consciousness** - The appearance view holds that the effects of attention on [[what you]] are aware of and how it appears to you must exhaust the contribution of attention to consciousness. - The appearance view is false because it misses a central element of how attention shapes consciousness: phenomenal structure. - ***Phenomenal structure refers to the way that objects appear to us, such as their color, shape, and texture.*** - ***Attention can affect phenomenal structure by making certain aspects of the world appear more salient or by changing the way that we perceive objects.*** **Evidence against the Appearance View** - **Inattentional blindness**. Experiments have shown that people can be blind to objects that are right in front of them if they are not paying attention to them. This suggests that attention is necessary for [[perceiving objects]], and that the effects of attention cannot be fully captured by changes in the way that objects appear. - **Partial report**. Experiments have also shown that people can only remember a fraction of [[the objects]] that they are presented with when they are attentionally limited. This suggests that attention is necessary for conscious awareness, and that the effects of attention cannot be fully captured by changes in the way that objects appear. **Attention and Phenomenal Uniqueness** - The phenomenal uniqueness of attention is the claim that all and only attention episodes share a (non-disjunctive) phenomenal property. - There is a natural tendency to describe every phenomenal contribution of attention (partially) in terms of "concentration of consciousness," "experiential highlighting," or "phenomenal salience." - This suggests that there is a unique phenomenal property that is shared by all attention episodes. **Evidence against the Phenomenal Uniqueness of Attention** - **Variety of attention effects**. Attention has a staggering variety of effects on appearances, including spatial frequency, apparent size, apparent color saturation, apparent spatial relations, apparent duration, apparent distance, apparent spatial resolution, and apparent temporal resolution. - **Phenomenal difference between attention episodes**. There is a phenomenal difference between focusing your visual attention on some small detail, and diffusing attention over the scene as a whole. This difference remains even if we suppose that the world appears the same in both scenarios. - **Correlation but no causation**. While priority structures may correlate with certain appearances, they are not constituted by such appearances. **Conclusion** - The appearance view is false. Attention contributes to consciousness in ways that cannot be fully captured by changes in the way that objects appear. - Attention has a unique phenomenal property that is shared by all attention episodes. However, this property does not constitute the entire phenomenal contribution of attention. - Attention also affects phenomenal structure by making certain aspects of the world appear more salient or by changing the way that we perceive objects. Chapter 9 **Phenomenal Structuralism** - **Definition**: Complex experiences are structured by attention so that some of their parts are more central than others. - **Implication**: Attention has a single phenomenal core, namely the phenomenal structure of experience. - **Contrasts**: [[This view]] contrasts with the identity mapping view, which holds that attention is always conscious, and [[the weak]] mapping view, which holds that attention is sometimes conscious. **Phenomenal Structure** - **Central Idea**: The phenomenal structure of an experience refers to the relative centrality of its different parts. - **Types**: [[The structure]] can be simple or complex, with one or many central elements, and can take various forms such as an "attentional landscape." - **Characteristics**: It is present whether attention is highly focused, divided, or distributed. - **Importance**: [[The structure]] of experience is what constitutes the phenomenal property shared by all conscious attention episodes. **Attention and Modes of Consciousness** - **Question**: Could attention be a particular mode of consciousness, such as a mode of perception or thought? - **Arguments Against**: - The phenomenal differences between sensory modalities and between perception and thought are not fully explained by modes of consciousness. - Attention is not an intentional attitude or mode, but rather a structure of the mind. **Centrality Systems** - **Definition**: A centrality system is a collection of qualitative parts that are all centrality connected. - **Types**: There may be multiple centrality systems, such as a visual centrality system and an auditory centrality system. - **Importance**: The parts of a centrality system form a phenomenally unified and entangled whole, such that the phenomenal properties of each part are partially grounded in its position within the system. **Phenomenal Holism** - **Question**: Does phenomenal holism follow from the entanglement of centrality systems? - **Arguments For**: The phenomenal properties of an experience may be partially grounded in its centrality relations to other experiences. - **Arguments Against**: The argument from phenomenal structuralism to centrality system holism remains inconclusive. **Precursors to Phenomenal Structuralism** - **French Phenomenologists**: Gaston Bachelard and Aron Gurwitsch proposed that attention organizes the field of consciousness through structural organization, rather than distribution of illumination. - **Cedric Evans**: In his book "The Subject of Consciousness," Evans suggested that the forms of attention are possible structurings of consciousness determined by the relation between unprojected consciousness and [[the object]] of attention. - **Brian O'Shaughnessy**: O'Shaughnessy proposed that attention is a system of simultaneous experiences. **Chapter 10** - **Guiding Principle**: Consciousness is a process, not a state, and the guidance of attention is often phenomenally conscious. - **Passive Guidance of Attention**: - Occurs when attention is caught, drawn, drifts, or wanders. - Results from psychological saliences, which are felt commands to attend to something. - **Phenomenal Salience**: - The felt motivational impact on our attention. - Occurs in perceptual experiences, emotional experiences, and bodily sensations. - **Imperatival Account of Phenomenal Salience**: - Argues that phenomenally salient experiences represent attention commands. - Representation of an attention command makes a difference in what it is like to have [[the experience]]. - **Phenomenal Imperatives Claim**: Some experiences have a phenomenal content in the form of a centrality structure. - **Contingent Capture Argument**: - Supports the phenomenal imperatives claim by demonstrating a difference in attention capture based on the representation of an attention command. - **Phenomenally Encoded Imperatives**: - The imperatives in phenomenal salience are represented as priority structures to be achieved (centrality structures). - **Phenomenal Salience Maps**: - Projected (as to be achieved) centrality systems. - Represent the relative salience of different qualitative parts of experience. - **Temporal Evolution of Passively Guided Attention**: - Phenomenal salience guides the evolution of centrality structures [[over time]], creating a "flow" of consciousness. - **Phenomenal Holism**: - Consciousness may be partially explained by the entanglement of centrality systems. **Chapter 11** **Agentive Awareness of Attention** - We gain knowledge of our attention and phenomenal structure by focusing attention on the ordinary objects and properties in our environment. - Agentive awareness of attending is a distinctive sense of agency that involves bringing a visual awareness to a central position in the field of consciousness. - This agentive awareness of arranging the parts of our mind is similar to agentive awareness of moving our body. **Introspection and Agentive Attention Awareness** - Agentive awareness of regulating centrality structures can be the basis for introspective knowledge about those centrality structures. - We can gain knowledge about [[the structure]] of our own mind by "moving" our mind, in the way we know about the relative position of our limbs by moving those limbs. **Intellectual Attention vs. Introspective Attention** - Intellectual attention is a thought-based form of attention that does not contribute to introspective knowledge. - Introspective attention is a form of attention that focuses on the phenomenal structure of our own mind, providing a basis for introspective knowledge. **[[Guiding Principles]]** - The guidance of attention is often phenomenally conscious. - When attention is passively guided, the activity of attending includes subject-level guiding states as parts. - Agentive attention awareness is a form of meta-awareness of active attending, guided through states in the subject's executive control system. - Agentive attention awareness is a pushmi-pullyu, meaning it both directs the activity and represents it. Chapter 11 **[[The relationship between]] attention and consciousness** - **Two claims about [[the relationship between]] attention and consciousness** - **Sufficiency claim:** Attention is sufficient for consciousness (i.e., there could be no attention without phenomenal consciousness). - **Necessity claim:** Attention is necessary for consciousness (i.e., there could be no phenomenal consciousness without attention). - **The inconclusive [[empirical case]] for a one-sided dependency** - Empirical evidence has been gathered to investigate the sufficiency and necessity claims. - Finding cases of attention without consciousness would undermine the sufficiency claim, and finding cases of consciousness without attention would undermine the necessity claim. - **The many sufficiency claims** - The sufficiency claim can be interpreted in different ways, depending on the definition of attention and consciousness. - One common interpretation is the "conscious essence" claim, which states that attention is a way of being phenomenally conscious. - Empirical evidence suggests that there are cases of attention without consciousness, challenging the sufficiency claim. - **The many necessity claims** - The necessity claim can also be interpreted in different ways, depending on the definition of attention and consciousness. - One interpretation is the "focal necessity" claim, which states that only things that are the focus of attention can be conscious. - This claim is contradicted by evidence showing that people can be conscious of things they are not paying attention to. - Another interpretation is the "occupant necessity" claim, which states that anything that occupies attention is conscious. - This claim is also problematic because it is unclear how much attention something must occupy in order to be conscious. - A weaker claim is the "priority system necessity" claim, which states that only things that are part of the subject's priority system can be conscious. - **Evidence for and against the priority system necessity claim** - Inattentional blindness studies have shown that people are less likely to be conscious of things that receive less attention. - However, some people can still be conscious of things that they are not paying attention to, suggesting that attention is not strictly necessary for consciousness. - Other studies have shown that attentional priority is correlated with the accessibility of phenomenal consciousness. - This suggests that attention may be necessary for conscious access to phenomenal states, but not for consciousness itself. # Summary of Movements of the Mind Chapter 1 **Intentional agency involves a tug of war between automaticity and control rooted in different sources of bias.** **1. The Selection Problem** - Agents are inundated with too much information, necessitating selection to generate coherent behavior. - The Selection Problem is a fundamental constraint that all agents must overcome to act, even in the absence of information overload. - The problem is exemplified by Buridan's ass, who must choose between two identical bales of hay. **2. Bias in Solving the Selection Problem** - Action requires bias, which can emanate from intention, emotion, or perceptual salience. - Intention provides a bias by biasing input and output in action, guiding behavior toward a specific goal. - Emotion can also drive action by occupying the biasing role, leading to automatic actions that are motivated by emotional states. **3. Automaticity and Control** - Automaticity is the absence of active control in guiding behavior. - Control is the active shaping of behavior in accordance with intention. - The balance between automaticity and control changes as skill and expertise are acquired. **4. Attention as Guidance in Action** - Attention is the mechanism by which the agent's taking of things guides her response in action. - Seeing is an active form of attention that provides a constant input to inform response. **5. The Necessity of the Structure of Intentional Action** - Intentional action has a psychological structure: the agent's responding, guided by her taking things, given her intending to act. - This structure is necessary to distinguish action from reflex and to solve the Selection Problem. - The action capacities exercised in intentional action are cognitively integrated with the agent's intending. **6. Examples of Automaticity and Control** - In the Stroop task, word reading is automatic and interferes with the controlled action of color naming. - In task switching paradigms, shifting between intentions is an important aspect of executive control. - In motor control, intention potentiates a set of motor representations, which are then executed automatically to satisfy the intention. **Additional Points:** - The concept of "guidance" in action is restricted to attention, avoiding theoretical ambiguity with the term "guidance" used by other researchers to describe control. - The biological conception of being active in action needs to be stitched together with the metaphysical conception of activity. - Learning can involve expanding the range of actions that can be directly done by recognizing that one action can be done by doing another action (e.g., escaping an avalanche by making swimming motions). Chapter 2? **The Key Role of Intention and Working Memory in Action** **Core Tenets:** - Working memory is specifically dedicated to memory for action, guiding attention and cognitive control. - The central executive of working memory is crucial for controlling intention. - Empirical research on working memory reveals the dynamics of intention as memory, supporting the agent's expression of control in intention. **Working Memory and Memory for Action:** - Working memory is a multi-component system that holds information temporarily and mediates its use in ongoing mental activities. - It involves the encoding, maintenance, and retrieval of information, facilitating action guidance. **The Central Executive and Intention:** - The central executive is a powerful component within working memory that regulates attention, processing, and the manipulation of long-term memories. - It is responsible for coordinating task performance, controlling attention, and managing information in working memory. - The central executive is analogous to the role of intention in action, setting appropriate attention and regulating the use of relevant memoranda. **Functional Alignment between Central Executive and Intention:** - The control functions of the central executive and intention are tied to cognitive integration, biasing action-relevant capacities to solve the Selection Problem. - Intention's regulation of attention is a dynamic process that ensures appropriate attention throughout the course of action. **Active Nature of Intention:** - Intention is not a static state but an active process. - The agent's intention to act is a way of being active, influencing the level of steadfastness and vigilance in action. - This activeness can vary among individuals, leading to differences in attention control and sustained attention. **Implications for Attention and Agency:** - Intention and working memory are essential for attentional control and goal-directed action. - Failure of sustained attention or intention can lead to reduced vigilance and impaired action. - The active nature of intention emphasizes its crucial role in guiding action, highlighting the dynamic interplay between intention, attention, and action. Chapter 3/4 **Intention's Role in Solving the Selection Problem and Guiding Action** **Core Tenets:** - Intention in action guides attention and cognition to solve the Selection Problem, the challenge of choosing the appropriate action from numerous possibilities. - The Continuity of Practical Memory is crucial, ensuring that intention remains connected to its past and future, enabling coherent agency. - Breakdowns in practical memory lead to a loss of contact with action's goals and intentions, resulting in disoriented action. **Intention's Dynamic Nature: Fine-Tuning** - Intention is not static but undergoes fine-tuning, a process of updating and refining as the action progresses. - Fine-tuning narrows the gap between general intention and specific action, allowing for more precise guidance. - Automatic practical reasoning underlies fine-tuning, helping the agent adjust their intention in response to changing circumstances. **The Retro-Cue Paradigm and Fine-Tuning:** - Empirical evidence from the retro-cue paradigm illustrates fine-tuning in working memory. - When a cue highlights a specific memory item, the memory is modified to prioritize that item, enhancing cognitive access and facilitating response. - This prioritization is analogous to the selective attention afforded by fine-tuned intentions in action. **Intention and Cognitive Access** - Intention provides non-observational, authoritative, and distinctively first-personal access to action. - Practical reasoning based on intention forms the basis of the agent's cognitive attention, enabling them to report their actions accurately. - External observers, lacking access to the agent's intention, cannot attain the same level of cognitive access. **Practical Fine-Tuning in Everyday Situations** - Fine-tuning is not limited to experimental paradigms but is a fundamental aspect of everyday action. - The example of choosing a cake illustrates how general intentions are refined through fine-tuning, leading to specific choices and actions. **Automatic Nature of Fine-Tuning** - While intention can be consciously regulated, fine-tuning often occurs automatically. - This automaticity aids in solving the Selection Problem and ensures smooth action execution. **Integration of Cognitive and Perceptual Attention** - Intention integrates cognitive and perceptual attention, guiding the agent's focus and response. - This integration allows for flexible and efficient action by directing attention to relevant stimuli and suppressing distractions. **Summary:** Intention plays a central role in guiding action by solving the Selection Problem and maintaining coherence through the Continuity of Practical Memory. Fine-tuning is a crucial process that updates and refines intention, allowing for precise and appropriate action. The automatic nature of fine-tuning and the integration of cognitive and perceptual attention further enhance the effectiveness of intention in guiding action. Intention also provides the basis for non-observational, authoritative, and distinctively first-personal access to action through practical reasoning. Chapter 5 **Attention and Bias in Action** **Core Concepts:** - **Cognitive Field:** The set of potential targets for attention in action. - **Selection Problem:** The challenge of choosing the appropriate action from numerous possibilities. - **Bias:** A factor that systematically influences attention and decision-making in action. - **Cognitive Salience:** The priority given to a target in attention, resulting from bias. **Types of Cognitive Biases:** - **Automatic Biases:** Unconscious and unintentional biases that influence attention. - **Historical or Learned Biases:** Biases acquired through experience and learning. - **Value-Based Biases:** Biases that prioritize targets based on their perceived value. **Attention and Action:** - Attention guides action by selecting the appropriate response from the cognitive field. - Bias in attention affects the choice of action, leading to biased decision-making. **Normative Assessment of Attention:** - Attention is subject to normative assessment, as it can influence the moral and ethical consequences of action. - Biases in attention can lead to harm, responsibility, or virtuous/vicious actions. **Development and Training of Attention:** - Attentional skills, including vigilance and attunement, can be developed through training. - Intentional debiasing can help overcome automatic biases and establish appropriate attentional patterns. **Applications to Practical Situations:** - Combating bias in attention is crucial for fair and equitable outcomes in areas such as hiring and conference speaker selection. - Automatic processes can be harnessed to shape attentional habits, promoting virtuous actions. **Additional Insights:** - Mind wandering is a type of attentional exploration that can facilitate creative thinking. - Mind wandering can be influenced by framing effects and demand characteristics, highlighting the challenges of introspective reporting. chapter 6 **Reasoning and Attention in Deduction** **Key Concepts:** - **Deduction:** A form of reasoning that involves narrowing cognitive attention from premises to conclusion. - **Cognitive Attention:** The intentional focusing of attention on a specific claim. - **Rule of Modus Ponens:** A deduction rule that infers a conclusion from a conditional premise and a non-conditional premise. - **Schema:** A procedural representation that guides learned behavior. **Deduction as an Action:** - Reasoning involves solving a Selection Problem by choosing the appropriate target of attention (conclusion) from multiple possibilities. - Rules of reasoning contribute to control by setting attention to relevant features. **Role of Attention in Modus Ponens:** - In modus ponens, the conditional premise creates a cognitive field with three possibilities: [P, Q], [not-P, Q], [not-P, not-Q]. - The non-conditional premise (p) serves as a cognitive cue that directs attention to the possibility [P, Q]. - This focused attention narrows the cognitive field and enables the inference of q. **Learning and Development:** - Deduction skills are learned through practice and exposure to examples. - Training helps develop recognitional capacities and propensities to move along specific paths in action space. **Knowledge and Control in Deduction:** - Explicit knowledge of the rule of modus ponens is not necessary for deduction, but it can provide bias by setting attention to the appropriate guiding features. - Intentional control in reasoning combines cognitive attention with knowledge acquired through learning. **Assessment of Reasoning:** - Reasoning is not only evaluated by the correctness of the conclusion but also by the appropriateness of attention given to relevant possibilities. - Human reasoners can hold explicit attitudes toward their inferences, but these are not necessary for successful deduction. **Implications for Skill Development:** - Knowing how to perform an action, such as deduction, involves acquiring schemas that guide performance. - The development of action capacities is tied to learning and practice. - Experience and learning influence the intentional actions of agents with the same intention. **Cognitive Integration and Bias:** - Conceptual involvement in attention can bias attention toward guiding features, influencing action-relevant responses. - Artifacts, for example, can be seen as actionable under the aspect of their function through learned cognitive integration. - Practical significance of concepts is acquired through learning and can be modulated by context and internal state. **Control in Intention:** - Learning transforms capacities for control in setting action guidance. - Knowledgeable control in intention brings together knowledge as a correlated influence. - Learning enhances understanding by shaping intentions and deploying knowledge. Chapter 7 **Accuracy and Reliability of Introspective Judgments - Detailed Summary** **Key Points:** - **Introspection:** A mental action that involves the examination of one's own conscious experiences. - **Simple Introspection:** A form of introspection that draws solely on perceptual experience as the source of information. - **Complex Introspection:** A form of introspection that involves cognitive attention and the application of concepts in addition to perceptual experience. **Accuracy Conditions for Introspection:** - **Perceptual Accuracy:** The ability to accurately perceive the target of introspection. - **Attentional Engagement:** The ability to direct attention to the target of introspection. - **Minimal Bias:** The reduction of potential biases and confounds that may influence the introspective report. **Limits of Introspection:** - **Limited Scope:** Cannot access phenomena outside of attention. - **Influences of Task Instructions:** Task instructions and experimenter expectations can influence introspective reports. - **Need for Empirical Data:** Introspective reports should be supported by empirical evidence to ensure reliability. **Complex Introspection and Blur:** - **Detection of Blur:** Complex introspection can be used to detect blur, but depends on the accurate application of the concept "BLUR." - **Concept of Blur:** Acquisition of the concept "BLUR" involves contrasting clear and blurry experiences. **Factors Influencing Introspective Judgment of Blur:** - **Visual Acuity:** Variation in visual acuity across the visual field can impact introspective judgments of blur. - **Attentional Capacity:** Differences in attentional capacity can influence the ability to detect blur in the periphery. - **Cognitive Factors:** Working memory and concept application play a role in complex introspection of blur. **Need for Rigorous Introspective Methods:** - **Control for Variability:** Account for potential sources of variability that may affect introspective judgments. - **Standardized Testing Procedures:** Implement standardized testing procedures to ensure uniformity across introspective reports. - **Conceptual Understanding:** Ensure a uniform understanding of the concepts used in introspective judgments. **Limitations and Future Directions:** - **Bias and Error:** Introspection is not immune to bias and error, and should be interpreted with caution. - **Future Research:** Further research is needed to fully understand the limits and potential of introspection as a tool for investigating conscious experience. ### notes - Would a being with no control of attention be able to appreciate their own consciousness - think of an image, colours are only likely to be aesthetically pleasing if some structure us imposed on them - So it is with the priority view of attention ![[ideogram | ˈɪdɪəɡram | noun.txt]]password: gs_lhi-sy4umn5