creators_name: Guez, David creators_id: david.guez@mac.com type: journalp datestamp: 2011-10-27 01:31:46 lastmod: 2011-10-27 01:31:46 metadata_visibility: show title: From Cognition to Consciousness: a discussion about learning, reality representation and decision making. ispublished: pub subjects: bio-ani-behav subjects: bio-ani-cog subjects: bio-evo subjects: comp-psy subjects: phil-sci full_text_status: public keywords: animal cognition; decision making; Umwelt; representation of reality; associa- tive learning; transitive inference; Open Program; stereotypic behaviour; logic; rules abstract: The scientific understanding of cognition and consciousness is currently hampered by the lack of rigorous and universally accepted definitions that permit comparative studies. This paper proposes new functional and un- ambiguous definitions for cognition and consciousness in order to provide clearly defined boundaries within which general theories of cognition and consciousness may be developed. The proposed definitions are built upon the construction and manipulation of reality representation, decision making and learning and are scoped in terms of an underlying logical structure. It is argued that the presentation of reality also necessitates the concept of ab- sence and the capacity to perform transitive inference. Explicit predictions relating to these new definitions, along with possible ways to test them, are also described and discussed. date: 2010 date_type: published publication: Biological theory: volume: 5 number: 2 publisher: MIT pagerange: 136-141 refereed: TRUE citation: Guez, Dr David (2010) From Cognition to Consciousness: a discussion about learning, reality representation and decision making. [Journal (Paginated)] document_url: http://cogprints.org/7679/1/Cognition%20preprint.pdf