(Baddeley, 2000). The interactions between these three are based on the idea
of a global workspace architecture, first developed by cognitive modelling and
common in computational approaches to human cognition. On this view, the
brain is structured so that just a few items at a time are dealt with in the global
workspace – similar to the 7 ± 2 items conventionally held in working memory.
The theatre has numerous inputs from the senses and from the overall context,
and connections to the resources of a ‘vast unconscious mind’ (Baars, 1997a, p.
304), such as language, memory systems, and learned skills. According to Baars,
all this provides a real ‘working theatre’, with consciousness acting as a gateway,
providing global access to any part of the nervous system.
In this scheme, consciousness has very definite effects and functions. It provides
access to the mental lexicon, and to autobiographical memory and the self-sys-
tem. It recruits processors for ongoing tasks, facilitates executive decisions, and
enables voluntary control over automatic action routines. According to Baars,
consciousness is not an epiphenomenon, nor is it mysterious. It is a working part
of the cognitive system. Baars understands the brain as a whole as consisting of
Context operators behind the scenes
Director Spotlight
controller
Local contexts
the
players ...
Competing for access to consciousness:
... the spotlight
of attention
shining on the
stage of working
memory ...
the unconscious audience ...
Fringe:
Conscious
experience
Outer senses
Seeing
Hearing
Feeling
Ta sting
Smelling
Submodalities
Heat
Vibration
Inner senses
Visual imagery
Inner speech
Dreams
Imagined
feelings
Ideas
Imagible ideas
Verbalised ideas
Fringe
conscious
intuitions
Working memory receives conscious input,
controls inner speech, uses imagery for spatial
tasks, all under voluntary control.
Memory systems:
Interpreting conscious contexts:
LexiconSemantic networks Automatisms:
Autobiographical
& declarative memory
Beliefs, knowledge
of the world, of
oneself and others.
Recognising objects, faces,
speech, events. Syntactic
analysis. Spatial relationships.
Social inferences.
Skill memory.
Details of language,
action control, reading,
thinking, and
thousands more ...
Motivational systems:
Is the conscious event relevant to my goals? Emotional responses, facial
expressions, preparing the body for action. Managing goal conflicts.
FIGURE 5.6 • Baars’s theatre metaphor for conscious experience (Baars, 1997a, p. 300).
