Theories of Access Consciousness

Abstract

Theories of access consciousness address how it is that some mental states but not others are available for evaluation, choice behavior, and verbal report. Farah, O'Reilly, and Vecera (1994) argue that quality of representation is critical; De- haene, Sergent, and Changeux (2003) argue that the ability to communicate rep- resentations is critical. We present a probabilistic information transmission or PIT model that suggests both of these conditions are essential for access con- sciousness. Having successfully modeled data from the repetition priming litera- ture in the past, we use the PIT model to account for data from two experiments on subliminal priming, showing that the model produces priming even in the ab- sence of accessibility and reportability of internal states. The model provides a mechanistic basis for understanding the dissociation of priming and awareness.