DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x25103075 ISSN: 0140-525X
Reality monitoring decision policies and the slowness of consciousness
Megan A. K. PetersAbstract
Fleming and Michel suggest that conscious vision reflects a reality monitoring (RM) mechanism that evolved to separate planning from perception. Here, I critically examine the RM decision policy implied by the authors – a slow, winner-take-all strategy tagging only one first-order representation as “real.” Specifically, I explore how expectations about environmental or reality-tagging stability may mask alternative RM decision policies, with important implications for learning and the evolutionary emergence and function of consciousness.