Against the View that Consciousness and Attention are Fully Dissociable.

Giorgio Marchetti

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00036

Abstract

In this paper, I will try to show that the idea that there can be consciousness without some form of attention, and high-level top-down attention without consciousness, originates from a failure to notice the varieties of forms that top-down attention and consciousness can assume. I will present evidence that: there are various forms of attention and consciousness; not all forms of attention produce the same kind of consciousness; not all forms of consciousness are produced by the same kind of attention; there can be low-level attention (or preliminary attention), whether of an endogenous or exogenous kind, without consciousness; attention cannot be considered the same thing as consciousness.

Highlights

Giorgio Marchetti *Reviewed by: David Rosenthal, City University of New York, USA Ramakrishna Chakravarthi, Université Paul Sabatier, France
In the controversial and unresolved debate about the relationship between attention and consciousness, Koch and Tsuchiya’s (2006) article certainly had the merit of posing the problem of the relationship between attention and consciousness in a very clear, schematic, and provocative way
I will try to show here that, even if attention cannot be considered the same thing as consciousness, some form of attention is always necessary for consciousness, and that high-level topdown attention always implies some form of consciousness

Summary

Giorgio Marchetti *

Reviewed by: David Rosenthal, City University of New York, USA Ramakrishna Chakravarthi, Université Paul Sabatier, France. I will present evidence that: there are various forms of attention and consciousness; not all forms of attention produce the same kind of consciousness; not all forms of consciousness are produced by the same kind of attention; there can be low-level attention (or preliminary attention), whether of an endogenous or exogenous kind, without consciousness; attention cannot be considered the same thing as consciousness

INTRODUCTION

Consciousness and attention

Findings

CONCLUSION