Consciousness is often treated as unitary phenomenon. We challenge this and propose a framework that parses it into two functionally distinct representational media. Reviewing dominant theories, as well as studies of perceptual failures, neural activity, visual search and attention - we argue that phenomenal experience arises early as a detailed, analogue, and relatively generic representation of the physical world. Awareness, a later and more idiosyncratic representation of the world, results from enriching phenomenal experience via relevance-filtered semantic knowledge. This Multi-Representational Media (MRM) account unifies perception, memory, and cognition, reconciles rich and sparse consciousness views, and reframes concepts in unconscious cognition research.

Consciousness is often treated as unitary phenomenon. We challenge this and propose a framework that parses it into two functionally distinct representational media. Reviewing dominant theories, as well as studies of perceptual failures, neural activity, visual search and attention - we argue that phenomenal experience arises early as a detailed, analogue, and relatively generic representation of the physical world. Awareness, a later and more idiosyncratic representation of the world, results from enriching phenomenal experience via relevance-filtered semantic knowledge. This Multi-Representational Media (MRM) account unifies perception, memory, and cognition, reconciles rich and sparse consciousness views, and reframes concepts in unconscious cognition research.

Consciousness is often treated as unitary phenomenon. We challenge this and propose a framework that parses it into two functionally distinct representational media. Reviewing dominant theories, as well as studies of perceptual failures, neural activity, visual search and attention - we argue that phenomenal experience arises early as a detailed, analogue, and relatively generic representation of the physical world. Awareness, a later and more idiosyncratic representation of the world, results from enriching phenomenal experience via relevance-filtered semantic knowledge. This Multi-Representational Media (MRM) account unifies perception, memory, and cognition, reconciles rich and sparse consciousness views, and reframes concepts in unconscious cognition research.