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Introspection, consciousness, and human information processing
Author(s) -
LUNDH LARSGUNNAR
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9450.1979.tb00703.x
Subject(s) - introspection , consciousness , psychology , sketch , cognitive psychology , information processing , cognitive science , computer science , neuroscience , algorithm
The paper tries, on rational and empirical grounds, to sketch a theory of introspective awareness, considered as an essential aspect of what is usually talked about in terms of “consciousness”. The main thesis is that introspective awareness has an important role of play in human information processing. An attempt is made to clarify the connections between introspective awareness, selective attention, and short‐term memory. A lot of human information processing goes on pre‐attentively, “automatically”, without the involvement of introspective awareness. What is introspectively attended to enters short‐term memory, where it remains available for various kinds of mental operations; certain kinds of such operations are themselves introspectively accessible, and may become contents of short‐term memory, where they in turn can be operated upon, and hence be modified voluntarily by the subject. Finally, various kinds of limitations to introspective awareness are discussed.