Artificial Consciousness/Psychology

 Psychology   And How it Relates to Consciousness 

Since William James wrote the seminal book on Psychology in the 1800's Consciousness has been considered part of what psychology should explain. However, over the history of psychology the main stream of science has seldom welcomed consciousness studies. The Functionalists found it nearly impossible to define functions for consciousness in their earlier approaches, and later the behaviorists concentrated on behavior and ignored consciousness. This was partly because there was a serious attempt to make psychology a hard science like physics. One notable theory of Brain Function is the Production System Theory on which computer architectures were based. This theory was that the brain was essentially a data processing unit and must therefore follow certain rules of data processing including holdovers from the Age of Reason, like logic. Later Researchers decided that the computer model did not suit. So the Cognitivist school saw consciousness as an emergent property of cognitive functions of the brain, and this view of Consciousness has persevered to this day.

Of interest recently is the shift to the Neuropsychologist school where attempts are being made to find neural correlates for the cognitive functions

--Graeme E. Smith 02:33, 27 January 2009 (UTC)