This site has been permanently archived. This is a static copy provided by the University of Southampton.

@misc{cogprints3677, title = {Consciousness, cognition, and the hierarchy of context: expanding the global neuronal workspace}, author = {Rodrick Wallace}, year = {2004}, keywords = {atlas, cognition, consciousness, Dretske, groupoid, information theory, renormalization, topology}, url = {http://cogprints.org/3677/}, abstract = {Adapting Dretske's approach on the necessary conditions for mental process, we apply a communication theory analysis of interacting cognitive biological and social modules to the global neuronal workspace. Using an obvious canonical homology with statistical physics, the method, when iterated, generates a fluctuating dynamic threshold recognizably similar to a phase transition in a physical system, but constrained to a manifold/atlas structure analogous to a tunable retina. The resulting 'General Cognitive Model' can be extended in a straightforward manner to include the effects of psychosocial stress, culture, or other cognitive modules which constitute a structured, embedding, hierarchy of contextual constraints acting at a slower rate than neuronal function itself. This produces an empirically-testable 'bipsychosociocultural' treatment of individual consciousness that, while otherwise remarkably similar to the standard development, meets compelling philosophical and other objections to brain-only descriptions.} }