AudioBanter.com - View Single Post - A model of the brain, & quick-switch

wrote:
Buster Mudd wrote:
wrote:

...the fact that a spontaneous observation of a property of sound
A involves a different perceptual mechanism than asking oneself, yes or
no, if A is present in the sound. A paradigm which proceeds on the
assumption that there is no such distinction, would not be able to show
that it exists.

You contend that it is a "fact" that such a distinction exists. I on
the other hand contend that discriminations of sonic properties are, by
virtue of their being discriminations of sonic properties, involve the
same perceptual mechanism. The "asking oneself" either before or after
the discrimination may appear to frame the perception differently, but
it is the discrimination itself, not the framing, which determines the
perceptual mechanism.

You might be right.

But does your contention imply any model of perception and
consciousness?

Let's say the brain contains lower-level perceptual mechanisms, and
also filters that bring those perceptions to consciousness.

My contention is that the state of consciousness affects what
information reaches it. Spontaneously noticing things is one state of
consciousness, I contend, while looking for specific things is another.
It may be possible that the lower-level mechanism is the same in each
case.

Does your contention imply anything about consciousness? Such as an
ability to focus on details at will, or a comprehensive mechanism that
brings all relevant information into consciousness regardless of what
one is looking for?

It just implies that you have to make a conscious discrimination in
order to parse the thought "this sounds brighter than that", and that
once that conscious discrimination has been made, it is now moot to
argue about whether the discrimination was arrived at via Purposeful
Hunting or Spontaneous Noticing, because your consciousness no longer
has access to that "information".

Even if Purposeful Hunting did exist as a neural activity that was
physically different from that of Spontaneous Noticing, that neural
activity has been overwritten by your conscious discrimination, and is
no longer available.