Abstract:

There are two theories on consciousness in implicit sequence learning: dichotomy theory and graded consciousness theory. Both subjective and objective consciousness behavior measures come from the dichotomy theory, but their researches have enlightened the graded consciousness theory. With electrophysiological and brain imaging measures we can get the objective indicators, but there are much dichotomy bias in them. The influence factors of consciousness are response-stimulus intervals (RSI), openness and novelty. Investigations on the three factors respectively support dichotomous or graded theory and future studies may breed new theory. Because dichotomy theory can not explain phenomenon of intermediate consciousness, and graded consciousness theory fails to explain the separation of conscious and unconscious brain areas, we propose a new dual-system graded consciousness theory which may integrate both and may promote new researches adopting brain network technology to explore the diversity and competitiveness of consciousness generation mechanisms. In addition, the sensitivity scale of behavior measures on consciousness remains to be confirmed and interactions between the three factors are worth exploring.

Key words: dichotomy theory, graded consciousness theory, dual-system graded consciousness theory, measures of consciousness, influence factors of consciousness