International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

E. JANTSCH proposed the following characterization of different learning processes, as related to consciousness:

"- Virtual learning is characteristic of non-reflective consciousness.(sic) (JANTSCH gives examples from quantum physics and dissipative thermodynamics).

"- Functional learning, characteristic of reflexive consciousness or simple perception, may be graphically depicted by the feedback interaction between consciousness and environment which appear here in a binary link. This kind of interaction is found in biological and primitive social processes.

"- Conscious learning, Characteristic of self-reflective consciousness, may be viewed as the multiple feedback interactions in the ternary system formed by consciousness, the environment, and a memory or storage system which may be termed the "appreciated world" and which of course is itself part of consciousness…

"- Superconscious learning characteristic of a more complex kind of self-reflexive consciousness which mirror itself in a "surface" consciousness as well as in a multilevel superconsciousness of "depth" consciousness… " (1976, p.41-42).

The problem with this classification is that the concept of consciousness is at the same time abstract and subjective. On the one side, it seems difficult to accept so-called "non reflective consciousness" in physical systems (Is this not an anthropomorphic metaphor?). On the other hand, consciousness is something which happens in the nervous system (and more precisely in the cortex) and we still lack a clear understanding of how it is produced.

Another view on learning processes is S. GROSSBERG's (as commented by R. FISCHER, (1992, p.235):

"In GROSSBERG's adaptive resonance theory (1987) learning and memory are basically identical processes. Raw sense data from "out there" combine with the associations from the past and resonate until a coherent image is formed… What resonates in GROSSBERG's model is a cloud of neurons – an interconnected group of cells surrounded by inter-neurons – that together form an electronic feedback system which resonates in response to a particular class of sensations… The functional unit of short term memory is a resonating pattern (of synaptic weights) that fades in about 15 seconds if not committed to long term memory through association with "remembrance of things past". The conscious experience of daily routine then, is a pattern matching game between the novelties perceived and the known patterns ".

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