Converging on Consciousness?

Abstract

Many different measures and theories can be found in contemporary consciousness science. One way of dealing with a multiplicity of measures and theories is to compare and integrate them in order to establish convergent measures. Based on a framework designed to identify differences across experimental paradigms in neuroscience, it is suggested that the different ways that consciousness is measured in fact show that they measure different phenomena altogether. This claim is further supported by an analysis of the way that behavioural and neurophysiological measures either fail to converge at all, or converge in a predictable way around the cognitive and sensory processes that measures of consciousness really assess. Instead of assuming, as is often the case, that different measures reflect different types or aspects of consciousness, it is questioned whether there is reason to think that they are related to a common phenomenon at all.