Reappraising intuitions about consciousness.
Front Psychol March 20, 2026 Cheongil Kim, Sang Chul Chong
Intuitions about consciousness are more accurate and reliable than previously assumed, as recent findings show that cases seeming to reveal counterintuitive dissociations between consciousness and functions can be explained by partial awareness. The authors argue that consciousness is a metacognitive model of internal representations, and intuitions about consciousness are metacognitive models of the relationship between internal representations and functions. This reframing explains their accuracy and reliability and links them to well-studied cognitive functions like confidence, target templates, attention modes, and awareness of absence.