Regulation of the Stream of Consciousness: Toward a Theory of Ongoing Thought

摘要: Consciousness—that familiar constellation of memories, sensations, plans, fantasies, fleeting images, and sometimes unrecognizable forms that constitutes our awareness from moment to moment—has received rough treatment at the hands 20th-century American psychology. Neither elaborate Titchnerian method introspection nor stirring, graceful prose William James managed extend life consciousness as a legitimate area for psychological investigation much past turn century. As Roger Brown (1958) wrote, “In 1913 John Watson mercifully closed bloodshot inner eye With great relief profession trained its exteroceptors on laboratory animal” (p. 93). Even impact Freudian thought psychoanalysis, with interest in respect individual, failed generate renewed study because it emphasized overwhelming power unconscious portrayed man’s determined by hydrauliclike system drives which individual was generally unaware. More recently, careful, creative, rigorously executed scientific work (Holt, 1964; Paivio, 1971; Segal, Sheehan, 1972; Singer, 1974a,b) has open door bit toward systematic consciousness, though psychology is still occasionally chastised “diverting preoccupation supposed or real life” (Skinner, 1975, p. 46).