Additional Resources for Sparse Theories of Phenomenal Consciousness

In the debate about whether phenomenal consciousness is rich or sparse, the rich view holds that conscious experience contains more information than can be accessed or held in working memory, while the sparse view denies this. Some sparse-view proponents argue that the subjective feeling of richness arises from scene statistics and a cognitive illusion. This paper argues that the sparse view has further, underappreciated resources to explain intuitions of richness, drawing on research on feature binding and activity-silent working memory.

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.