The Prospective Nature of Involuntary Entry into Consciousness

We discuss the ways in which voluntary action, the conscious field, and the involuntary entry of contents into the conscious field are prospective in nature. First, as 'determining tendencies', action sets stored in the prefrontal cortex can trigger involuntary entry of contents into consciousness in response to to-be-perceived stimuli. Second, these conscious contents involved in involuntary entry are often representations of the perceptual consequences of to-beproduced actions, which are prospective in nature. Third, the conscious contents involved in involuntary entry are best construed as 'action options' for future behaviour. Last, the functional architecture underlying the moment-by-moment construction of the conscious field is designed to function adaptively in unpredictable settings. From this standpoint, the thoroughness with which the conscious field represents the current stimulus scene stems from the demands of adaptive action selection under conditions of unpredictability.