Additional Resources for Sparse Theories of Phenomenal Consciousness

Summary

The phenomenal overflow debate concerns whether conscious experience is richer than what can be accessed or reported. The rich view claims consciousness overflows access; the sparse view denies this, attributing the impression of richness to scene statistics and the refrigerator-light illusion. This paper argues that the sparse view has additional, underappreciated resources from research on feature binding and activity-silent working memory to explain intuitions of richness.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The phenomenal overflow debate is a debate about the richness of phenomenal consciousness. There are two candidate views: the rich view and the sparse view. The rich view says phenomenal consciousness outstrips access consciousness and the contents of working memory. The sparse view denies this. Moreover, according to some conceptions of the sparse view, the subjective impression of richness depends on scene statistics and the refrigerator-light illusion. The purpose of this paper is to show there are additional resources available to the sparse view in accommodating intuitions of richness that have yet to be fully appreciated by participants in the debate. To this end, research pertaining to feature binding and activity-silent working memory will be discussed.