
Rich Experience and Sparse Awareness
Sensing More Than We Know
Cambridge University Press
Will be published approx. on 31. August 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
75 pages
978-1-009-75708-9 (ISBN)
Description
Consciousness is often treated as unitary phenomenon. We challenge this and propose a framework that parses it into two functionally distinct representational media. Reviewing dominant theories, as well as studies of perceptual failures, neural activity, visual search and attention - we argue that phenomenal experience arises early as a detailed, analogue, and relatively generic representation of the physical world. Awareness, a later and more idiosyncratic representation of the world, results from enriching phenomenal experience via relevance-filtered semantic knowledge. This Multi-Representational Media (MRM) account unifies perception, memory, and cognition, reconciles rich and sparse consciousness views, and reframes concepts in unconscious cognition research.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Weight
25 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-009-75708-9 (9781009757089)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
approx. 08/2026
Cambridge University Press
€68.50
Not yet published
Persons
Content
1. Framing the problem; 2. Empirical puzzles: what we see is not always what there is; 3. The current theoretical landscape; 4. The selective mind: from past to present; 5. The motivational Relevance of an Active Representation (ROAR); 6. Back to the early versus late consciousness debate: positioning phenomenal experience relative to the selection bottleneck(s).; 7. Bridging the gap: why keep the baby but change the bathwater?; 8. Rich versus poor consciousness; 9. Putting humpty dumpty together again: getting to the multi-representational-media model; 10. Coda and novelty; 11. References.