Preprint Review Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

I am Conscious, Therefore I am: Imagery, Affect, Action, and a General Theory of Behaviour

Version 1 : Received: 18 April 2019 / Approved: 19 April 2019 / Online: 19 April 2019 (12:26:25 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Marks, D.F. I Am Conscious, Therefore, I Am: Imagery, Affect, Action, and a General Theory of Behavior. Brain Sci. 2019, 9, 107. Marks, D.F. I Am Conscious, Therefore, I Am: Imagery, Affect, Action, and a General Theory of Behavior. Brain Sci. 2019, 9, 107.

Abstract

Organisms are adapted to each other and the environment, not as tradition would have it, because natural selection made them that way, but because there is inbuilt striving towards stability and equilibrium. A General Theory of Behaviour connects imagery, affect and action with the central executive system we call Consciousness. The General Theory is founded on the assumption that the primary motivation of all of Consciousness and intentional behaviour is Psychological Homeostasis. Psychological homeostasis is as important to the organisation of mind and behaviour as Physiological Homeostasis is to the organisation of bodily systems. Consciousness processes quasi-perceptual images independently of the input to the retina and sensorium. Consciousness is the “I-Am” control centre for integration and regulation of (my) thoughts, (my) feelings and (my) actions with (my) conscious mental imagery as foundation stones. Imagery vividness, a combination of clarity and liveliness, is essential to imagining, remembering, thinking, predicting, planning and acting. Assessment of vividness using introspective report is validated by objective means such as fMRI. A significant body of work shows that vividness of visual imagery is determined by the similarity of neural responses in imagery to those occurring in perception of actual objects and performance of activities. I am Conscious, therefore I am.

Keywords

vividness; mental imagery; consciousness; cognitive neuroscience; neuroimaging; cognitive psychology; behavior; verbal report; phenomenology; perception

Subject

Social Sciences, Behavior Sciences

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