Consciousness, Thinking, Creativity

Abstract

It is difficult to define consciousness in a few words. One may characterize both physiological and psychological aspects of consciousness in terms of the following factors:

• 1. The active function of mechanisms of attention-amplification. These mechanisms ensure the generation of basic stimuli (of the main channels of communication) from the general stream of external and internal information circulating within the cerebral cortex at any given moment.

• 2. The formation and active function of the complex of models of the “I,” itself. These models include sensations emanating from all parts of the organs sensory systems. The models are compared to the flow of information which enters from the external environment, this being sensed by remote receptors such as the organs of hearing, sight, and smell.

• 3. A proper evaluation of the interrelationships of external and internal stimuli (concerning their relations to the subject matter). This amounts to a specification of the reality of the subject in the surrounding environment.

• 4. The formation of mechanisms of self-observation and self-control; that is, of memory imprinting of one’s own behavior and its evaluation in terms of a comparison with specified models which, in turn, are derived from training and education.

• 5. Formation and activity of the mechanisms of the will (see below).

• 6. The sensation of time and voluntary transfer of attention to the past, the present, or to the future.