It is an open question which animal species are conscious (distribution question).
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What differences in conscious experience are there? (quality question).
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Our framework suggests ten central dimensions of consciousness.
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These dimensions are empirically grounded in specific operationalization.
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The framework enables descriptions of consciousness profiles of various species.
Abstract
The science of animal consciousness investigates (i) which animal species are conscious (the distribution question) and (ii) how conscious experience differs in detail between species (the quality question). We propose a framework which clearly distinguishes both questions and tackles both of them. This two-tier account distinguishes consciousness along ten dimensions and suggests cognitive capacities which serve as distinct operationalizations for each dimension. The two-tier account achieves three valuable aims: First, it separates strong and weak indicators of the presence of consciousness. Second, these indicators include not only different specific contents but also differences in the way particular contents are processed (by processes of learning, reasoning or abstraction). Third, evidence of consciousness from each dimension can be combined to derive the distinctive multi-dimensional consciousness profile of various species. Thus, the two-tier account shows how the kind of conscious experience of different species can be systematically compared.
Keywords
Animal consciousness
Animal cognition
Evidence of consciousness
Consciousness profiles
Data availability
No data was used for the research described in the article.