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{{Short description|Perception or knowledge of something}}
{{wiktionary|awareness}}
{{redirect|Aware}}
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'''Awareness,''' in [[philosophy]] and [[psychology]], is a [[perception]] or [[knowledge]] of something.<ref name="apadef">{{cite web |title=awareness |url=https://dictionary.apa.org/awareness |website=APA Dictionary of Psychology |publisher=American Psychological Association |access-date=17 May 2024}}</ref> The concept is often synonymous with [[consciousness]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Hussain |first1=Amir |url=https://archive.org/details/braininspiredcog00huss |title=Brain Inspired Cognitive Systems 2008 |last2=Aleksander |first2=Igor |last3=Smith |first3=Leslie |last4=Barros |first4=Allan |last5=Chrisley |first5=Ron |last6=Cutsuridis |first6=Vassilis |publisher=Springer Science+Business Media |year=2009 |isbn=9780387790992 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/braininspiredcog00huss/page/n297 298] |url-access=limited}}</ref> However, one can be aware of something without being explicitly conscious of it, such as in the case of [[blindsight]].<ref name="apadef" />


The states of awareness are also associated with the states of [[experience]] so that the structure represented in awareness is [[Mirroring|mirrored]] in the structure of experience.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Chalmers |first=David |url=https://archive.org/details/consciousmindins00chal/page/225 |title=The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0195105537 |location=Oxford |pages=[https://archive.org/details/consciousmindins00chal/page/225 225] |url-access=registration}}</ref>
{{Redirect|Aware}}


In [[biological psychology]], '''awareness''' comprises a human's or an animal's [[sense|perception]] and [[cognitive]] reaction to a condition or event. Awareness does not necessarily imply [[understanding]], just an ability to be conscious of, feel or perceive.
==Concept==
==Concept==
Awareness is a relative [[concept]]. It may refer to an internal state, such as a visceral feeling, or on external events by way of sensory perception.<ref name=":1" /> It is analogous to sensing something, a process distinguished from observing and perceiving (which involves a basic process of acquainting with the items we perceive).<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Locke |first=Don |title=Perception: And Our Knowledge of the External World, Volume 3 |publisher=Psychology Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0415295628 |location=London |pages=27}}</ref> Awareness can be described as something that occurs when the brain is activated in certain ways, such as when the color red is seen once the [[retina]] is stimulated by [[Light|light waves]].<ref name=":2" /> This [[conceptualization (information science)|conceptualization]] is posited due to the difficulty in developing an analytic definition of awareness or sensory awareness.<ref name=":2" />
Awareness is a relative [[concept]]. An [[animal]] may be partially aware, may be [[subconscious]]ly aware, or may be acutely aware of an event. Awareness may be focused on an internal state, such as a visceral feeling, or on external events by way of sensory perception. Awareness provides the raw material from which animals develop [[qualia]], or [[Subjectivity|subjective]] [[idea]]s about their [[experience]].


Awareness is also associated with consciousness in the sense that it denotes a fundamental experience such as a feeling or intuition that accompanies the experience of phenomena.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kokoszka |first=Andrzej |title=States of Consciousness: Models for Psychology and Psychotherapy |publisher=Springer Science+Business Media |year=2007 |isbn=9780387327570 |location=New York |pages=4}}</ref> Specifically, this is referred to as awareness of experience.
Also used to distinguish sensory perception is the word "awarement." "Awarement" is the established form of awareness. Once one has accomplished their sense of awareness they have come to terms with awarement.

Mocenni C. and Bizzarri F. wrote:<ref>Mocenni Chiara, Federico Bizzarri, Awareness. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4688</ref> "The awareness literature can be organized around three core concepts: ''cognitive awareness,''<ref>Papleontiou-Louca E., 2003, The concept and instruction of metacognition, ''Teacher development'', Vol. 7, N.1, pp. 9-30.</ref> which corresponds to the accurate and deep individual's understanding of one's perception and thinking.<sup>''(sic)''</sup> The second perspective argues that awareness is ''multilevel''<ref>Fromm E., 1965, Awareness versus consciousness, ''Psychological reports'' Vol. 16, N. 3, pp. 711-712.</ref> considering both conscious and unconscious, with an end-stage of awareness... The third considers awareness concerning the recognition of the ''feelings of others''."<ref>Beck A. T, Baruch E., Balter J. M., Steer R. A., Warman D. M., 2004, A new instrument for measuring insight: the Beck Cognitive Insight Scale. ''Schizophrenia research'', Vol. 68, N. 2-3, pp. 319-329.</ref>

==Peripheral awareness==
Peripheral awareness refers to the human ability to process information regarding all five senses at the periphery of attention, such as acknowledging the distant sounds of people outside while sitting indoors and concentrating on a specific task, such as reading.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Markopoulos |first1=Panos |last2=de Ruyter |first2=Boris |last3=Mackay |first3=Wendy E. |title=CHI '05 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems |chapter=Awareness systems: Known results, theory, concepts and future challenges |date=2005-04-02 |chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1056808.1057121 |pages=2128–2129 |location=New York, NY, USA |publisher=ACM |doi=10.1145/1056808.1057121|isbn=1595930027 |s2cid=39927494 }}</ref><ref>Liechti, O., & Sumi, Y. (2002). Editorial: Awareness and the WWW. Inter-national Journal of Human Computer Studies, 56(1), 1–5</ref> Peripheral vision is defined as the perception of visual stimuli at or near the edge of the field of vision.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Peter Ward |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.20622 |title=Oxford University Press |date=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |series=Oxford Music Online|doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.20622 }}</ref>

This type of awareness allows one to be prepared to respond to unexpected events. For example, when walking down a busy street while talking to a friend, peripheral awareness will allow for alertness to potential hazards such as cars or pedestrians coming into proximity that may not have been noticed otherwise.

Studies have shown having peripheral awareness enhances overall cognition. By improving peripheral awareness, overall quality of life and productivity will subsequently be improved.{{Citation needed|date=May 2023|reason=Provided citation was clearly bogus. Is there any reference for this claim at all?}}


==Self-awareness==
==Self-awareness==
{{Main|Self-awareness}}
Popular ideas about [[consciousness]] suggest the phenomenon describes a condition of being aware of one's awareness or, [[self-awareness]]. Efforts to describe consciousness in [[neurology|neurological]] terms have focused on describing networks in the [[brain]] that develop awareness of the [[qualia]] developed by other networks.<ref name=ed1998>{{Citation
Popular ideas about [[consciousness]] suggest the phenomenon describes self-awareness, the condition of being aware of oneself.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of SELF-AWARENESS |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/self-awareness |website=www.merriam-webster.com|date=29 July 2023 }}</ref> Modern [[systems theory]], which offers insights into how the world works through an understanding that all systems follow system rules, approaches self-awareness within its understanding of how large complex living systems work. According to [[Gregory Bateson]], the mind is the dynamics of [[self-organization]] and awareness is crucial in this process.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gandhi |first=Kishor |title=The Evolution of Consciousness |publisher=Paragon House |year=1986 |location=Saint Paul, MN |pages=258}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Grice |first=Keiron Le |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pmRrBgAAQBAJ&q=systems+theory+mind+self-organization+awareness+bateson&pg=PT143 |title=The Archetypal Cosmos |date=2011-06-09 |publisher=Floris Books |isbn=9780863158506 |language=en}}</ref> Modern systems theory maintains that humans, as living systems, not only have awareness of their environment but also self-awareness particularly with their capability for [[logic]] and curiosity.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Ward |title=Who Me? |publisher=Xlibris Corporation |year=2011 |isbn=9781462850389 |pages=94}}</ref>
| last = ed

| year = 1998
Efforts to describe consciousness in [[neurological]] terms have focused on describing networks in the [[brain]] that develop awareness of the [[qualia]] developed by other networks.<ref name="ed1998">{{Cite book |title=Self-awareness: its nature and development |publisher=Guilford Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-1-57230-317-1 |location=New York, NY |pages=12–13}}</ref> As awareness provides the materials from which one develops subjective ideas about their experience, it is said that one is aware of one's own awareness state.<ref name=":1" /> This organization of awareness of one's own inner experience is given a central role in [[Emotional self-regulation|self-regulation]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Amadei |first1=Gherardo |title=Living Systems, Evolving Consciousness, and the Emerging Person: A Selection of Papers from the Life Work of Louis Sander |last2=Bianchi |first2=Ilaria |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2012 |isbn=9780881634648 |location=New York |pages=162}}</ref>
| title = Self-awareness : its nature and development, 12-13
| isbn = 1572303174
| publisher = Guilford Press
| location = New York, NY
}}</ref>


==Neuroscience==
==Neuroscience==
Neural systems that regulate [[attention]] serve to attenuate awareness among complex animals whose [[central nervous system|central]] and [[peripheral nervous system]] provides more information than [[cognition|cognitive]] areas of the brain can assimilate. Within an attenuated system of awareness, a [[mind]] might be aware of much more than is being contemplated in a focused [[extended consciousness]].
Neural systems that regulate [[attention]] serve to attenuate awareness among complex animals whose [[central nervous system|central]] and [[peripheral nervous system]]s provide more information than [[cognition|cognitive]] areas of the brain can assimilate. Within an attenuated system of awareness, a [[mind]] might be aware of much more than is being contemplated in a focused [[extended consciousness]].


===Basic Awareness===
===Basic awareness===
Basic awareness of one's internal and external world depends on the [[brain stem]]. Bjorn Merker <ref>http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070915/bob9.asp Consciousness in the Raw, Science News Online, September 2007</ref>, an independent neuroscientist in Segeltorp, Sweden, argues that the brain stem supports an elementary form of conscious thought in infants with [[hydranencephaly]]. "Higher" forms of awareness including [[self-awareness]] require cortical contributions, but "primary consciousness" or "basic awareness" as an ability to integrate sensations from the environment with one's immediate goals and feelings in order to guide behavior, springs from the brain stem which human beings share with most of the [[vertebrates]]. Psychologist [[Carroll Izard]] emphasizes that this form of primary [[consciousness]] consists of capacity to generate emotions and an awareness of one's surroundings, but not an ability to talk about what one has experienced. In the same way, people can become conscious of a feeling that they can't label or describe, a phenomenon that's especially common in pre-verbal infants.
Basic awareness of one's internal and external world depends on the [[brain stem]]. [[Bjorn Merker]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=September 2007 |title=Consciousness in the Raw |url=http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070915/bob9.asp |website=Science News Online |access-date=2008-01-17 |archive-date=2008-04-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080415121032/http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070915/bob9.asp |url-status=dead }}</ref> an independent neuroscientist in Stockholm, Sweden, argues that the brain stem supports an elementary form of conscious thought in infants with [[hydranencephaly]]. "Higher" forms of awareness, including [[self-awareness]], require cortical contributions, but "primary consciousness" or "basic awareness" as an ability to integrate sensations from the environment with one's immediate goals and feelings in order to guide behavior springs from the brain stem which human beings share with most [[vertebrates]]. Psychologist [[Carroll Izard]] emphasizes that this form of primary [[consciousness]] consists of the capacity to generate emotions and awareness of one's surroundings, but not an ability to talk about what one has experienced. In the same way, people can become conscious of a feeling that they cannot label or describe, a phenomenon that is especially common in pre-verbal infants.


Due to this discovery medical definitions of [[brain death]] as a lack of [[cortical]] activity face a serious challenge.
Due to this discovery, medical definitions of [[brain death]] as a lack of [[Cerebral cortex|cortical]] activity face a serious challenge.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |title=Consciousness : a survey of scientists' bold attempts to demystify the mind |date=2016-06-28 |others=Quill, Elizabeth,, Society for Science & the Public |isbn=978-1-62681-843-9 |edition=First |location=New York, NY |oclc=954339941}}</ref>


====Basic Interests====
===Basic interests===
Down the brain stem lie interconnected regions that regulate the direction of [[eye gaze]] and organize decisions about what to do next, such as reaching for a piece of food or pursuing a potential mate.
Throughout the brain stem, there are interconnected regions that regulate eye movement that are also involved in organizing information about what to do next, such as reaching for a piece of food or pursuing a potential mate.<ref name=":3" />


===Changes in awareness===
==Living Systems View==
The ability to consciously detect an image when presented at near-threshold stimulus varies across presentations. One factor is "baseline shifts", due to top down attention that modulates ongoing brain activity in sensory cortex areas that affects the neural processing of subsequent perceptual judgments.<ref>{{Cite journal |vauthors=Sylvester CM, Shulman GL, Jack AI, Corbetta M |date=December 2007 |title=Asymmetry of anticipatory activity in visual cortex predicts the locus of attention and perception |journal=J. Neurosci. |volume=27 |issue=52 |pages=14424–33 |doi=10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3759-07.2007 |pmc=6673462 |pmid=18160650}}</ref> Such top down biasing can occur through two distinct processes: an attention driven baseline shift in the [[alpha wave]]s, and a decision bias reflected in [[gamma wave]]s.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wyart |first1=V. |last2=Tallon-Baudry |first2=C. |date=July 2009 |title=How Ongoing Fluctuations in Human Visual Cortex Predict Perceptual Awareness: Baseline Shift versus Decision Bias |journal=Journal of Neuroscience |volume=29 |issue=27 |pages=8715–8725 |doi=10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0962-09.2009 |pmc=6664890 |pmid=19587278}}</ref>
Outside of [[neuroscience]] biologists, [[Humberto Maturana]] and [[Francisco Varela]] contributed their [[Santiago theory of cognition]] in which they wrote:<blockquote>Living systems are cognitive systems, and living as a process is a process of cognition. This statement is valid for all organisms, with or without a nervous system.<ref>Capra, Fritjof. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/37800841&referer=brief_results The Web of Life: A new Scientific Understanding of Living Systems.</ref> </blockquote> This theory contributes a perspective that cognition is a process present at organic levels that we don't usually consider to be aware. Given the possible relationship between awareness and [[cognition]], and [[consciousness]], this theory contributes an interesting perspective in the [[philosophical]] and [[scientific]] dialogue of awareness and [[living systems theory]].


==Other uses==
==Living systems view==
Outside of the field of [[neuroscience]], [[Humberto Maturana]] and [[Francisco Varela]] contributed their [[Santiago theory of cognition]] in which they wrote:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Capra, Fritjof |url=https://archive.org/details/weboflifenewscie00capr |title=The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems |publisher=Anchor Books |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-385-47676-8 |location=Garden City, N.Y |author-link=Fritjof Capra |url-access=registration}}</ref>
Awareness is also a concept used in [[CSCW]]. Its definition has not yet reached a consensus in the scientific community.
{{blockquote|Living systems are cognitive systems, and living as a process is a process of cognition. This statement is valid for all organisms, with or without a nervous system.}}


This theory contributes a perspective that cognition is a process present at organic levels that we do not usually consider to be aware. Given the possible relationship between awareness and [[cognition]], and [[consciousness]], this theory contributes an interesting perspective in the [[philosophical]] and [[scientific]] dialogue of awareness and [[living systems theory]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ford |first=Donald H. |date=2019-03-04 |title=Humans as Self-Constructing Living Systems |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780429025235 |doi=10.4324/9780429025235|isbn=9780429025235 }}</ref>
Awareness forms a basic concept of the theory and practice of [[Gestalt therapy]].


==Communications and information systems==
In general, "awareness" may also refer to public or common knowledge or understanding about a social, scientific, or political issue, and hence many movements try to foster "awareness" of a given subject. Examples include [[AIDS]] awareness and [[Multicultural]] awareness.


In cooperative settings, awareness is a term used to denote "knowledge created through the interaction of an agent and its environment — in simple terms 'knowing what is going on'".<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gutwin |first1=Carl |last2=Greenberg |first2=Saul |date=September 2002 |title=A Descriptive Framework of Workspace Awareness for Real-Time Groupware |journal=Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) |volume=11 |issue=3–4 |pages=411–446 |citeseerx=10.1.1.330.8099 |doi=10.1023/A:1021271517844 |s2cid=8823328}}</ref> In this setting, awareness is meant to convey how individuals monitor and perceive the information surrounding their colleagues and the environment they are in. This information is incredibly useful and critical to the performance and success of collaborations.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Dourish |first1=Paul |last2=Bellotti |first2=Victoria |title=Proceedings of the 1992 ACM conference on Computer-supported cooperative work - CSCW '92 |chapter=Awareness and coordination in shared workspaces |date=1992 |work=Computer Supported Cooperative Work |isbn=978-0897915427 |pages=107–114 |citeseerx=10.1.1.575.8202 |doi=10.1145/143457.143468 |issue=November |s2cid=1359859}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schmidt |first=Kjeld |date=2002 |title=The problem with 'awareness': Introductory remarks on 'awareness in CSCW' |journal=Computer Supported Cooperative Work |volume=11 |issue=3–4 |pages=285–298 |doi=10.1023/A:1021272909573 |s2cid=11873660}}</ref> Awareness can be further defined by breaking it down into a set of characteristics:<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gutwin |first1=Carl |title=A framework of awareness for small groups in sharedworkspace groupware |last2=Greedberg |first2=Saul |date=1999 |publisher=Department of Computer Science |edition=Technical Report 99-1 |location=University of Saskatchewan, Canada}}</ref>
Awareness may refer to [[Anesthesia awareness]].
* Knowledge about the state of some environment
* Environments are continually changing, therefore awareness knowledge must be constantly maintained
* Individuals interact with the environment, and maintenance of awareness is accomplished through this interaction.
* Generally part of some other activity, making it a secondary goal to the primary goal of the activity.

Different categories of awareness have been suggested based on the type of information being obtained or maintained:<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Greenberg |first1=Saul |last2=Gutwin |first2=Carl |last3=Cockburn |first3=Andy |date=1996 |title=Awareness Through Fisheye Views in Relaxed-[[WYSIWIS]] Groupware |journal=Proceedings of the Conference on Graphics Interface '96 |pages=28–38}}</ref>
* Informal awareness – the sense of who's around and what are they up to; information you might know from being collocated with an individual
* Social awareness – the information you maintain about a social or conversational context. This is a subtle awareness maintained through non-verbal cues, such as eye contact, facial express, etc.
* Group-structural awareness – the knowledge of others roles, responsibilities, and status in a group. It is an understanding of group dynamics and the relationship another individual has to the group.
* Workspace awareness – awareness with a focus on the workspace's influence and mediation of awareness information, particularly the location, activity, and changes of elements within the workspace.

These categories are not mutually exclusive, as there can be significant overlap in what a particular type of awareness might be considered. Rather, these categories serve to help understand what knowledge might be conveyed by a particular type of awareness or how that knowledge might be conveyed. Workspace awareness is of particular interest to the [[Computer-supported cooperative work|CSCW]] community, due to the transition of workspaces from physical to virtual environments.

While the type of awareness above refers to knowledge a ''person'' might need in a particular situation, ''[[context awareness]]'' and ''[[location awareness]]'' refer to information a ''computer system'' might need in a particular situation. These concepts of large importance especially for AAA ([[authentication]], [[authorization]], [[accounting]]) applications.

The term of location awareness still is gaining momentum with the growth of ubiquitous computing. First defined by networked work positions ([[network location awareness]]), it has been extended to mobile phones and other mobile communicable entities. The term covers a common interest in whereabouts of remote entities, especially individuals and their cohesion in operation. The term of context awareness is a superset including the concept of location awareness. It extends the awareness to context features of an operational target as well as to the context of an operational area.

==Covert awareness== <!-- This section was merged and is linked from redirect "Covert awareness" -->
{{See also|Blindsight}}
Covert awareness is the knowledge of something without knowing it. The word covert means not openly shown, engaged in.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of COVERT |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/covert |access-date=2023-03-13 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en}}</ref> Some patients with specific [[brain damage]] are, for example unable to tell if a pencil is horizontal or vertical.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Boly |first1=Melanie |last2=Laureys |first2=Steven |date=2018-05-01 |title=Functional 'unlocking': bedside detection of covert awareness after severe brain damage |url=https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/141/5/1239/4985458 |journal=Brain |language=en |volume=141 |issue=5 |pages=1239–1241 |doi=10.1093/brain/awy080 |issn=0006-8950 |pmid=29701789 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Patients who are clinically in a vegetative state (show no awareness of their surroundings) are found to have no awareness but they are able to sometimes detect covert awareness with neuro imaging (fMRI). The presence of awareness is clinically measured by the ability to follow commands -either verbally, or behaviorally. Awareness was detected by asking participants to imagine hitting a tennis ball and to imagine walking from room to room in their house while in the scanner. Using this technique, a patient who fulfilled all of the clinical criteria for the vegetative state was shown to be covertly aware and able to willfully respond to commands by looking at their brain activity.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Fernández-Espejo |first1=Davinia |last2=Norton |first2=Loretta |last3=Owen |first3=Adrian M. |date=2014-04-14 |editor-last=Zhang |editor-first=Nanyin |title=The Clinical Utility of fMRI for Identifying Covert Awareness in the Vegetative State: A Comparison of Sensitivity between 3T and 1.5T |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=e95082 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0095082 |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=3986373 |pmid=24733575|bibcode=2014PLoSO...995082F |doi-access=free }}</ref>

==Awareness versus attention==
Some scientists have proposed that awareness is closely related and in some ways synonymous with [[attention]]<ref>Posner M (1994) Attention: the mechanisms of consciousness. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 91:7398–7403.</ref><ref>O'Regan JK, Noe A (2001) A sensorimotor account of vision and visual consciousness. Behav Brain Sci 24:939–973.</ref> while others have argued that they are different.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lamme |first=Victor A.F. |date=January 2003 |title=Why visual attention and awareness are different |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1364-6613(02)00013-x |journal=Trends in Cognitive Sciences |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=12–18 |doi=10.1016/s1364-6613(02)00013-x |pmid=12517353 |s2cid=16594697 |issn=1364-6613}}</ref> There is evidence to demonstrate that awareness and attention have distinct neural correlates, though the majority of research analyses the attention, awareness, and perception of only visual stimuli.<ref>Wyart V, Tallon-Baudry C (2008) Neural dissociation between visual awareness and spatial attention. J Neurosci 28:2667–2679.</ref>

== See also ==

{{wiktionary-inline|presence of mind}}
* {{annotated link|Awareness ribbon}}
* {{annotated link|Choiceless awareness}}
* {{annotated link|Consciousness raising}}
* {{annotated link|Ethics}}
* {{annotated link|Illusion of explanatory depth}}
* {{annotated link|Indefinite monism}}
* {{annotated link|List of awareness ribbons}}
* {{annotated link|Mental Health Awareness Month}}
* {{annotated link|Mental Illness Awareness Week}}
* {{annotated link|Philosophy of mind}}
* {{annotated link|Public awareness of climate change}}
* {{annotated link|Public awareness of science}}
* {{annotated link|Situation awareness}}
* {{annotated link|Suicide awareness}}
* {{annotated link|Value (ethics and social sciences)}}


==References==
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{reflist|25em}}
{{Unreferenced|date=January 2007}}
==See also==
* [[Yoga Nidra]]
* [[Indefinite monism]]
* [[Feldenkrais method]]
* [[Philosophy of mind]]


==External links==
==External links==
{{Wiktionarypar|awareness}}
{{Wiktionary|awareness}}
{{Wikiquote}}
*[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9882019&dopt=Citation National Library of Medicine] Conditioning, awareness, and the hippocampus.
*{{Commons category-inline}}
*[http://www.euroscience.ee/human_awareness.html Euroscience Conference]: Presentation on Human Awareness and Behaviour In A Changing World.
*{{Cite journal |vauthors=LaBar KS, Disterhoft JF |year=1998 |title=Conditioning, awareness, and the hippocampus |journal=Hippocampus |volume=8 |issue=6 |pages=620–6 |doi=10.1002/(SICI)1098-1063(1998)8:6<620::AID-HIPO4>3.0.CO;2-6 |pmid=9882019 |s2cid=11974202}}
*[http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/05/3.3.05/brain_damage_aware.html Cornell University]: Recent findings in the awareness of brain damaged people.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060308235733/http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/05/3.3.05/brain_damage_aware.html Cornell University]: Recent findings in the awareness of brain damaged people.


{{Philosophy topics}}
{{Mental processes}}
{{Consciousness}}


[[Category:Cognitive science]]
[[Category:Cognition]]
[[Category:Consciousness]]
[[Category:Systems psychology]]
[[Category:Systems psychology]]
[[Category:Virtues]]
[[Category:Unsolved problems in neuroscience]]
[[Category:Unsolved problems in neuroscience]]
[[Category:Mindfulness (psychology)]]

[[Category:Concepts in epistemology]]
[[de:Awareness]]
[[he:מודעות]]
[[it:Consapevolezza]]
[[ja:アウェアネス]]
[[fi:Tajunta]]

Latest revision as of 14:16, 12 December 2024

"Aware" redirects here. For other uses, see Aware (disambiguation).

Awareness, in philosophy and psychology, is a perception or knowledge of something.[1] The concept is often synonymous with consciousness.[2] However, one can be aware of something without being explicitly conscious of it, such as in the case of blindsight.[1]

The states of awareness are also associated with the states of experience so that the structure represented in awareness is mirrored in the structure of experience.[3]

Concept

Awareness is a relative concept. It may refer to an internal state, such as a visceral feeling, or on external events by way of sensory perception.[2] It is analogous to sensing something, a process distinguished from observing and perceiving (which involves a basic process of acquainting with the items we perceive).[4] Awareness can be described as something that occurs when the brain is activated in certain ways, such as when the color red is seen once the retina is stimulated by light waves.[4] This conceptualization is posited due to the difficulty in developing an analytic definition of awareness or sensory awareness.[4]

Awareness is also associated with consciousness in the sense that it denotes a fundamental experience such as a feeling or intuition that accompanies the experience of phenomena.[5] Specifically, this is referred to as awareness of experience.

Mocenni C. and Bizzarri F. wrote:[6] "The awareness literature can be organized around three core concepts: cognitive awareness,[7] which corresponds to the accurate and deep individual's understanding of one's perception and thinking.(sic) The second perspective argues that awareness is multilevel[8] considering both conscious and unconscious, with an end-stage of awareness... The third considers awareness concerning the recognition of the feelings of others."[9]

Peripheral awareness

Peripheral awareness refers to the human ability to process information regarding all five senses at the periphery of attention, such as acknowledging the distant sounds of people outside while sitting indoors and concentrating on a specific task, such as reading.[10][11] Peripheral vision is defined as the perception of visual stimuli at or near the edge of the field of vision.[12]

This type of awareness allows one to be prepared to respond to unexpected events. For example, when walking down a busy street while talking to a friend, peripheral awareness will allow for alertness to potential hazards such as cars or pedestrians coming into proximity that may not have been noticed otherwise.

Studies have shown having peripheral awareness enhances overall cognition. By improving peripheral awareness, overall quality of life and productivity will subsequently be improved.[citation needed]

Self-awareness

Main article: Self-awareness

Popular ideas about consciousness suggest the phenomenon describes self-awareness, the condition of being aware of oneself.[13] Modern systems theory, which offers insights into how the world works through an understanding that all systems follow system rules, approaches self-awareness within its understanding of how large complex living systems work. According to Gregory Bateson, the mind is the dynamics of self-organization and awareness is crucial in this process.[14][15] Modern systems theory maintains that humans, as living systems, not only have awareness of their environment but also self-awareness particularly with their capability for logic and curiosity.[16]

Efforts to describe consciousness in neurological terms have focused on describing networks in the brain that develop awareness of the qualia developed by other networks.[17] As awareness provides the materials from which one develops subjective ideas about their experience, it is said that one is aware of one's own awareness state.[2] This organization of awareness of one's own inner experience is given a central role in self-regulation.[18]

Neuroscience

Neural systems that regulate attention serve to attenuate awareness among complex animals whose central and peripheral nervous systems provide more information than cognitive areas of the brain can assimilate. Within an attenuated system of awareness, a mind might be aware of much more than is being contemplated in a focused extended consciousness.

Basic awareness

Basic awareness of one's internal and external world depends on the brain stem. Bjorn Merker,[19] an independent neuroscientist in Stockholm, Sweden, argues that the brain stem supports an elementary form of conscious thought in infants with hydranencephaly. "Higher" forms of awareness, including self-awareness, require cortical contributions, but "primary consciousness" or "basic awareness" as an ability to integrate sensations from the environment with one's immediate goals and feelings in order to guide behavior springs from the brain stem which human beings share with most vertebrates. Psychologist Carroll Izard emphasizes that this form of primary consciousness consists of the capacity to generate emotions and awareness of one's surroundings, but not an ability to talk about what one has experienced. In the same way, people can become conscious of a feeling that they cannot label or describe, a phenomenon that is especially common in pre-verbal infants.

Due to this discovery, medical definitions of brain death as a lack of cortical activity face a serious challenge.[20]

Basic interests

Throughout the brain stem, there are interconnected regions that regulate eye movement that are also involved in organizing information about what to do next, such as reaching for a piece of food or pursuing a potential mate.[20]

Changes in awareness

The ability to consciously detect an image when presented at near-threshold stimulus varies across presentations. One factor is "baseline shifts", due to top down attention that modulates ongoing brain activity in sensory cortex areas that affects the neural processing of subsequent perceptual judgments.[21] Such top down biasing can occur through two distinct processes: an attention driven baseline shift in the alpha waves, and a decision bias reflected in gamma waves.[22]

Living systems view

Outside of the field of neuroscience, Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela contributed their Santiago theory of cognition in which they wrote:[23]

Living systems are cognitive systems, and living as a process is a process of cognition. This statement is valid for all organisms, with or without a nervous system.

This theory contributes a perspective that cognition is a process present at organic levels that we do not usually consider to be aware. Given the possible relationship between awareness and cognition, and consciousness, this theory contributes an interesting perspective in the philosophical and scientific dialogue of awareness and living systems theory.[24]

Communications and information systems

In cooperative settings, awareness is a term used to denote "knowledge created through the interaction of an agent and its environment — in simple terms 'knowing what is going on'".[25] In this setting, awareness is meant to convey how individuals monitor and perceive the information surrounding their colleagues and the environment they are in. This information is incredibly useful and critical to the performance and success of collaborations.[26][27] Awareness can be further defined by breaking it down into a set of characteristics:[28]

  • Knowledge about the state of some environment
  • Environments are continually changing, therefore awareness knowledge must be constantly maintained
  • Individuals interact with the environment, and maintenance of awareness is accomplished through this interaction.
  • Generally part of some other activity, making it a secondary goal to the primary goal of the activity.

Different categories of awareness have been suggested based on the type of information being obtained or maintained:[29]

  • Informal awareness – the sense of who's around and what are they up to; information you might know from being collocated with an individual
  • Social awareness – the information you maintain about a social or conversational context. This is a subtle awareness maintained through non-verbal cues, such as eye contact, facial express, etc.
  • Group-structural awareness – the knowledge of others roles, responsibilities, and status in a group. It is an understanding of group dynamics and the relationship another individual has to the group.
  • Workspace awareness – awareness with a focus on the workspace's influence and mediation of awareness information, particularly the location, activity, and changes of elements within the workspace.

These categories are not mutually exclusive, as there can be significant overlap in what a particular type of awareness might be considered. Rather, these categories serve to help understand what knowledge might be conveyed by a particular type of awareness or how that knowledge might be conveyed. Workspace awareness is of particular interest to the CSCW community, due to the transition of workspaces from physical to virtual environments.

While the type of awareness above refers to knowledge a person might need in a particular situation, context awareness and location awareness refer to information a computer system might need in a particular situation. These concepts of large importance especially for AAA (authentication, authorization, accounting) applications.

The term of location awareness still is gaining momentum with the growth of ubiquitous computing. First defined by networked work positions (network location awareness), it has been extended to mobile phones and other mobile communicable entities. The term covers a common interest in whereabouts of remote entities, especially individuals and their cohesion in operation. The term of context awareness is a superset including the concept of location awareness. It extends the awareness to context features of an operational target as well as to the context of an operational area.

Covert awareness

See also: Blindsight

Covert awareness is the knowledge of something without knowing it. The word covert means not openly shown, engaged in.[30] Some patients with specific brain damage are, for example unable to tell if a pencil is horizontal or vertical.[31] Patients who are clinically in a vegetative state (show no awareness of their surroundings) are found to have no awareness but they are able to sometimes detect covert awareness with neuro imaging (fMRI). The presence of awareness is clinically measured by the ability to follow commands -either verbally, or behaviorally. Awareness was detected by asking participants to imagine hitting a tennis ball and to imagine walking from room to room in their house while in the scanner. Using this technique, a patient who fulfilled all of the clinical criteria for the vegetative state was shown to be covertly aware and able to willfully respond to commands by looking at their brain activity.[32]

Awareness versus attention

Some scientists have proposed that awareness is closely related and in some ways synonymous with attention[33][34] while others have argued that they are different.[35] There is evidence to demonstrate that awareness and attention have distinct neural correlates, though the majority of research analyses the attention, awareness, and perception of only visual stimuli.[36]

See also

The dictionary definition of presence of mind at Wiktionary

References

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  2. ^ a b c Hussain, Amir; Aleksander, Igor; Smith, Leslie; Barros, Allan; Chrisley, Ron; Cutsuridis, Vassilis (2009). Brain Inspired Cognitive Systems 2008. New York: Springer Science+Business Media. pp. 298. ISBN 9780387790992.
  3. ^ Chalmers, David (1997). The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 225. ISBN 978-0195105537.
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  35. ^ Lamme, Victor A.F. (January 2003). "Why visual attention and awareness are different". Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 7 (1): 12–18. doi:10.1016/s1364-6613(02)00013-x. ISSN 1364-6613. PMID 12517353. S2CID 16594697.
  36. ^ Wyart V, Tallon-Baudry C (2008) Neural dissociation between visual awareness and spatial attention. J Neurosci 28:2667–2679.
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