Dr. Bernard J. Baars
Bernard J. Baars, Ph.D. is Affiliated Fellow
in Theoretical Neurobiology at the Neurosciences
Institute in La Jolla, CA.
Bernie is a cognitive scientist specializing in conscious and
unconscious brain functions, voluntary control, and concepts of self.
These common sense ideas have long been difficult to study in the
biobehavioral sciences, but have returned to the forefront in recent
decades. He is best known for his book,
A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness (1988) in which he
develops an
integrative theory called
Global Workspace Theory (GWT) as a model for
conscious and unconscious processes in the human brain.
GWT continues to be developed, in collaboration with Professor. Stan
Franklin
of the University of Memphis, Professor Murray Shanahan of Imperial
College,
London, and scientists working in the Neural Darwinism tradition of
Gerald A. Edelman at the Neurosciences Institute. A number of
neuroscientists are advancing the theory from their own perspectives,
notably Professor Stan Dehaene and his research group in Paris. A
popular
account of GWT appeared in 1997, called
In the Theater of Consciousness:
the Workspace of the Mind, from Oxford University Press (1997;
translated into German and Japanese).
Bernie cofounded the journal
Consciousness & Cognition together with
William P. Banks, published by Academic Press/Elsevier, and was the
first president of the
Association for the Scientific Study of
Consciousness. ASSC is still the sole scientific
organization dedicated to the empirical study and understanding of
consciousness and related issues. Both Consciousness & Cognition and
ASSC have helped to expand the accepted reach of consciousness science
to a large number of topics, including such fields as animal
consciousness.
Bernie is also a founder and editor of the
web bulletin
Science and Consciousness Review, along with Thomas Ramsoy
and
others.
SCR aims to make the fast-growing scientific literature available to a
wider web audience.
He recently developed teaching materials for a
web-based course
through the University of Arizona Center for Consciousness Studies.
He has also edited a college textbook,
together with Nicole M. Gage, called
Cognition, Brain, and Consciousness: Introduction to Cognitive
Neuroscience. (Elsevier/Academic Press,
2007).
Bernie authored
The Cognitive Revolution in Psychology,
edited
Experimental Slips and Human Error: Exploring the Architecture of
Volition (Cognition and Language: A Series in
Psycholinguistics),
and coedited
Essential Sources in the Scientific Study of Consciousness.
His papers include
An architectural model of conscious and unconscious brain functions:
Global Workspace Theory and IDA,
How conscious experience and
working memory interact,
The conscious access hypothesis: origins and recent
evidence,
Applying Global Workspace Theory to
the Frame Problem,
Brain, conscious experience and the
observing self, and
Global Workspace Theory:
A Rigorous Scientific Theory of Consciousness.
Bernie earned his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at UCLA in 1970 and
his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology at UCLA in 1977.
