A computational theory called adaptive narrative control explains how subpersonal processes shape conscious experience to enable adaptive behavior. Systems with an attention schema can anticipate the epistemic and pragmatic consequences of attentional states, using mental action—endogenous control of attention—to regulate affective states. This capacity also produces avoidant mental action or motivated inattention, which is argued to be a core mechanism underlying psychopathology, leading to rigid belief formation, reduced emotional recognition (alexithymia), and decreased subjective well-being under certain environmental conditions. The account partially echoes Freudian defense mechanisms and introduces a computational unconscious. It refines the REBUS model of psychedelic therapy and explains improvements in well-being from meditation.
The sense of presence (feeling of 'being there' in a virtual environment) and the sense of reality (ability to distinguish real from unreal) are not separate phenomena but conceptually, mechanistically, and phenomenologically continuous. Cognitive science and VR studies use the terms inconsistently and interchangeably. Presence, like reality, likely arises from integrative mechanisms, supported by converging psychophysical findings in multisensory integration, self-embodiment, and agency. Preliminary neuroimaging suggests a shared frontolimbic substrate for generating 'realness.' This reconceptualization validates VR as a tool for studying the sense of reality and its clinical disorders, and the authors advocate for directly comparing these phenomena in future research.