Perception, Introspection and Attention

This paper focuses on introspection of perceptual consciousness and attempts to draw on empirical work on attention to provide a psychologically realistic model of introspection that is then used to explain certain properties of introspection. A key issue concerns unpacking introspective reliability. I claim that we can fix conditions of introspective reliability as rigorously as any experimental condition in cognitive science. Worries about the use of introspection in philosophy are raised: it is far less rigorous than it needs to be.

This paper offers a series of naive remarks on the reliability of first-person descriptions of conscious experience. Although rooted in the sparse-rich debate about conscious experience, it is ultimately uncommital as to the richness of phenomenally conscious episodes. Instead, it argues against the use of introspective descriptions in this debate, or, to put things in a milder, less pessimistic form, for a very reasonable use of introspection

Another discussion of introspection as attention and action, drawing on a empirical account of attention within the context of introspecting as a selective action.

2015

This article is addressed to the problem of the psychological constitution of self-knowledge, considered in the light of its perceptual model. The starting point is the hypothesis that attention, understood here as a psychological element of the mental ability that is self-knowledge, plays an important role in the process of gaining self-knowledge. According to this assumption, we need to build a model of self-knowledge that can adequately explain the path that leads from attention to self-knowledge. Thus the second claim made here is that the perceptual model of self-knowledge can help us with this task. While this model has been criticized in philosophy, the metaphor of the mind's eye has been successfully used in psychology to define a special kind of attention. The perceptual model should explain how it happens that inner mental states to which attention is paid appear in the field of consciousness due to the special kind of self-reflection that stems from the intentional character of consciousness. Paying attention to one's own mental states is understood here as a type of introspection, whereas paying attention to higher-level mental states involves creating compositions from mental and phenomenal components to develop a self-representation of the subject of these states. Observations of one's own mental states constitute the subject of these states, i.e. the self. Introspection is, therefore, a psychological method for exploring self-consciousness that leads to self-knowledge, which is, however, described in philosophical terms. The former is an object of psychological - hence empirical - research; the latter is an object of philosophical consideration. But the question of introspection - and consciousness itself as a basis for gaining self-knowledge - determines the psychological account of self-knowledge. Thus the aim of this paper is to argue that, first, attention is the most important component of inner perception, and second, that attention plays a crucial role in gaining self-knowledge.

A perceptual theory of introspection is one that treats introspection as a species of perception or as a special case of perception. Additionally, a perceptual theory of introspection is one for which introspection shares at least some of the essential features of perception. However, I will show that there are certain essential features of perception that introspection lacks. Moreover, those features common to perception and introspection are insufficient to distinguish perception from belief. Thus, there is good reason to deny that introspection fits a perceptual model of introspection. A perceptual theory of introspection is one that treats introspection as a species of perception or as a special case of perception. While introspection and perception are dissimilar in certain respects, a perceptual theory of introspection will be based on certain fundamental similarities between them. What I take to be an essential feature of any perceptual theory of introspection is that it takes perception to be a basic mental state, one irreducible to some other mental state. This feature rules out treating perception as a species of belief (what Dretske has called a cognitivist theory of perception) and then likening introspection to perception on the basis that it, too, is a species of belief. This latter view of introspection would be classified as a non-perceptual theory of introspection because while it does reduce introspection to perception, it goes on to reduce perception to belief. A perceptual theory of introspection, in addition to taking perception to be a basic mental state, is one for which introspection shares at least some of the essential features of perception. I will show, however, that there are certain essential features of perception that introspection lacks. In addition, those features common to perception and introspection are insufficient to distinguish perception from belief. Thus, there is good reason to deny that introspection fits a perceptual model of introspection.

Philosophy Compass, 2006

Review of General Psychology, 2001

The Blackwell Companion to Epistemology, 3rd Edition, 2025

Root, branch, and blossom, attention is intertwined with epistemology. It is essential to our capacity to learn and decisive of the evidence we obtain, it influences the intellectual connections we forge and those we remember, and it is the cognitive tool whereby we enact decisions about inquiry. Moreover, because it is both an epistemic practice and a site of agency, attention is a natural locus for questions about epistemic morality. This article surveys the emerging epistemology of attention, reviewing the existing literature and sketching avenues for future investigation. It also argues for a reorientation of epistemology itself. This argument is the focus of Section 1. Section 2 briefly reviews philosophical accounts of attention, Section 3 focuses on issues in traditional, individualistic epistemology, and Section 4 turns to social epistemology.

The Ubiquity of Inner Awareness thesis (UIA) states that all conscious states of normal adult humans are characterised by an inner awareness of that very state. UIA-Backers support this thesis while UIA-Skeptics reject it. At the heart of their dispute is a recalcitrant phenomenological disagreement. UIA-Backers claim that phenomenological investigation reveals ‘peripheral inner awareness’ (or ‘pre-reflective self-consciousness’) to be a constant presence in their non-introspective experiences. UIA-Skeptics deny that their non-introspective experiences are characterised by inner awareness, and maintain that inner awareness is only gained when they explicitly introspect. Each camp has put forward a range of arguments designed to resolve this dispute, but I argue that none of these arguments has genuine dialectical purchase. This leads me to develop a compromise position that trades on the contribution that affordances can make to our phenomenology. According to the Affordance Model of inner awareness, all conscious states of normal adult humans are characterised by an affordance of introspectability.