Development: Consciousness From Birth to Adulthood

Abstract

Research is converging on the suggestion that consciousness develops through a series of levels, each of which has distinct consequences for the quality of subjective experience, the potential for episodic recollection, the complexity of children’s explicit knowledge structures, and the possibility of the conscious control of thought, emotion, and action. This development may be tied to the growth of neural systems involving the prefrontal cortex, which is critically important for self-awareness and the conscious control of thought and action.