title: Learning, action and consciousness: a hybrid approach toward modelling consciousness.
abstract: This paper is an attempt at understanding the issue of consciousness through investigating its functional role, especially in learning, and through devising hybrid neural network models that (in a qualitative manner) approximate characteristics of human consciousness. In doing so, the paper examines explicit and implicit learning in a variety of psychological experiments and delineates the conscious/unconscious distinction in terms of the two types of learning and their respective products. The distinctions are captured in a two-level action-based model CLARION. Some fundamental theoretical issues are also clarified with the help of the model. Comparisons with existing models of consciousness are made to accentuate the present approach.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, USA
authors.forename: Ron
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sun