Bernard Baars

Bernard J. Baars (* 1946 in Amsterdam, Netherlands) is an American cognitive scientist who became famous for his Global Workspace Theory ( theory of the global work area ) of consciousness.

Life

Even as a child moved Baars in the United States, where he earned his bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1970. After a PhD in cognitive psychology at the same university Baars taught at the State University of New York and the University of California, Berkeley. Since 2001 he is a senior fellow for Theoretical Neurobiology at The Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla in San Diego. From 1994 to 1996, Baars founding president of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness ( ASSC ).

Work

Baars became known through his Global Workspace Theory ( theory of global work space ), which he in the book A cognitive theory of consciousness formulated in 1986 with the aim to provide a cognitive scientific approach to the phenomenon of consciousness. Baars starting point is the observation that large parts of the human information processing subconsciously and only a fraction of the recorded information reaches the consciousness. The information made ​​aware distinguished by Baars by the fact that they are available to the people in a special way available: A become conscious information can be matched approximately with memory or cognitive content and serve as a basis for motor or linguistic actions. One finds such a general availability on unconscious information not about the often independent of knowledge lead to a certain reaction or may not be articulated sprachlicn. Contents of consciousness are thus distinguished by significantly after Baars that they are other cognitive systems presented for further processing in a global workspace. In this sense, Baars says:

The narrow limits of consciousness have a compensating advantage: consciousness Seems to act as a gateway, creating access to any part of the nervous Essentially System. Even single neurons can be controlled by way of conscious feedback. Conscious experience Creates access to the mental lexicon, to autobiographical memory, and to voluntary control over automatic action routines.

The narrow limits of consciousness provide a counterbalancing advantage: consciousness seems like a gate to work, is the access to any part of the nervous system. Even individual neurons can be controlled by consciously feedback. Conscious experiences provide access to the mental lexicon, the autobiographical memory and the voluntary control of automated action routines.

Effect

Baars theory has worked in various ways in the cognitive sciences. For one thing, his approach complemented with cognitive architectures, to summarize the findings of cognitive psychology in a comprehensive computer model. Such architectures have the goal to simulate human information processing. The models often consist of a number of modules, which are arranged around a central processing unit. Such a central processing unit roughly corresponds to the global workspace within the meaning of Baars. Effect is Baars theory in cognitive neuroscience. For instance, Stanislas Dehaene has tried in recent years to support Baars approach by findings in brain research.

The theory of global work space has worked well in the philosophy of mind, such as Ned Block distinction between access consciousness ( access consciousness) and pheonomenal consciousness ( phenomenal consciousness) is affected. The access consciousness is characterized by the features, which describes in his Baars Global Workspace Model. Thus, a person of their fear in the sense of access consciousness is aware when they can say about "I'm scared. " Or can use their fear as explicit memory contents. As phenomenal consciousness applies, however, the experience level of consciousness about the subjective experience of fear. Therefore, the concept of phenomenal consciousness is broadly in line with the concept of qualia. If one accepts block differentiation, so arise simultaneously declaration limits of Baars model. The Global Workspace Theory can at best be an explanation for the access consciousness, an explanation for the phenomenal consciousness is not supplied.

Publications (selection)

• Bernard Baars: The cognitive revolution in psychology, NY: Guilford Press, 1986, ISBN 0-89862-912-8.
• Bernard Baars: A cognitive theory of consciousness, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1988, ISBN 0-521-30133-5.
• Bernard Baars: The experimental psychology of human error: Implications for the architecture of voluntary control, NY: Plenum Press, Series on Cognition and Language, 1992, ISBN 0-306-43866-6
• Bernard Baars: In the Theater of Consciousness: The Workspace of the Mind, NY: Oxford University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-19-514703-0.
• Bernard Baars and Nicole M. Gage: Cognition, Brain and Consciousness: An Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience, London: Elsevier / Academic Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-12-373677-2.