A cognitive framework for becoming deliberately conscious
November 18, 2024 preprint DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/ufwvh (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Intervention | Meditation training |
| Keywords | Cognition Cognitive science Cognitive psychology |
| Key points | Proposes that meditation involves a metacognitive template of a target content, and the comparison of this template with actual conscious content generates a "metacognitive prediction error" that enables efficient regulation of conscious content. |
Abstract
Meditation training is widely used to enhance mental well-being. However, a mechanistic cognitive science framework for understanding how it transforms mental processing is still needed. The act of practicing meditation involves trying to be deliberately conscious of a target content. This requires monitoring the contents of one’s consciousness and regulating them in favor of the target. I propose, this involves a metacognitive template of the target being present in consciousness, which when compared to the actual conscious content generates a “metacognitive prediction error” (MPE). MPE leads to efficient regulation of conscious content by helping fine-tune the frequency of monitoring, downstream unconscious processing, and the metacognitive template itself. The proposed framework parsimoniously explains existing neuroscientific findings on meditation and generates testable hypotheses.