In this book, Carlos Montemayor and Harry Haladjian consider the relationship between consciousness and attention. The cognitive mechanism of attention has often been compared to consciousness, since attention and consciousness appear to share similar qualities. Attention, however, can be defined functionally, whereas consciousness is generally defined in terms of its phenomenal character without a clear functional purpose. This book offers new insights and proposals about how best to understand and study the relationship between consciousness and visual attention by examining their functional ... More

In this book, Carlos Montemayor and Harry Haladjian consider the relationship between consciousness and attention. The cognitive mechanism of attention has often been compared to consciousness, since attention and consciousness appear to share similar qualities. Attention, however, can be defined functionally, whereas consciousness is generally defined in terms of its phenomenal character without a clear functional purpose. This book offers new insights and proposals about how best to understand and study the relationship between consciousness and visual attention by examining their functional aspects. The ultimate conclusion of the book is that consciousness and attention are largely dissociated. After a rigorous analysis of the current empirical and theoretical work on attention and consciousness, a spectrum of dissociation is proposed. This framework identifies the levels of dissociation between consciousness and attention, from identity to full dissociation. It is argued that conscious attention—the focusing of attention on the contents of awareness—is constituted by overlapping but distinct processes of consciousness and attention. This conscious attention likely evolved after the basic forms of attention, increasing access to the richest kinds of cognitive contents. Therefore, a focused examination of conscious attention should enable theoretical and empirical progress that will further our understanding of the human mind and help unify the study of consciousness and attention across the disciplines.