The Global Workspace Needs Metacognition

• Published in: Trends in cognitive sciences 2019-07, Vol.23 (7), p.560-571
• Main Authors: Shea, Nicholas, Frith, Chris D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: confidence; consciousness; global availability; metarepresentation; working memory
• ISSN: 1364-6613; 1879-307X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2019.04.007

The two leading cognitive accounts of consciousness currently available concern global workspace (a form of working memory) and metacognition. There is relatively little interaction between these two approaches and it has even been suggested that the two accounts are rival and separable alternatives. Here, we argue that the successful function of a global workspace critically requires that the broadcast representations include a metacognitive component. The global workspace and metacognition are, respectively, the basis of the two leading cognitive theories of consciousness.The two theories, which have recently been presented as rivals, are usually pursued separately, but there is no need to choose between them.There is in fact strong reason to expect items in the global workspace to have a metacognitive accompaniment in the form of a rating of confidence.Confidence ratings are relied on by the computations that compare, integrate, and compute over representations in the global workspace.Recent empirical findings support the hypothesis that representations in the global workspace always carry with them a measure of confidence.