A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness — Bernard Baars — 1988

Baars develops a scientific model where consciousness arises when information enters a “global workspace,” becoming widely available across the brain. Drawing on experiments in attention, memory, and perception, he shows consciousness is not a thing, but a functional process of information broadcasting and coordination.

1. Central Question

2. Method: Contrastive Analysis

3. Core Idea: Global Workspace

4. Core Mechanisms

5. Empirical Evidence

6. Conclusion of the Work

⭐ Star Facts — A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness (Bernard Baars)

• Consciousness is not a thing, it’s a process that broadcasts information across the brain
• Only a small amount of information can be conscious at once (strict capacity limit)
• Most brain activity is unconscious and parallel, happening in the background
• Consciousness acts like a “global workspace” where information becomes widely available
• Information becomes conscious when it is shared across multiple systems (memory, language, decision-making)
• Many processes compete for access to consciousness—only one wins at a time
• Conscious awareness is closely tied to attention and reportability
• Experiments (like the Sperling study) show we briefly perceive more than we can consciously report
• Dual-task experiments prove that conscious attention is limited and easily overloaded
• Consciousness allows for flexible, coordinated behavior, not automatic responses
• What feels like a unified experience is actually the result of many systems sharing information