A general framework of consciousness is called AWARENESS (Solso, 2003).

The main features of the framework include Attention, Wakefulness,

Architecture, Recall of knowledge, and the Emotive. In addition, there are
several secondary attributes included in the framework. These are Novelty,
Emergence, Selectivity, and Subjectivity. The five elements of consciousness
in the AWARENESS framework are an attempt to reduce the variance in
defining the subjective experience we call consciousness.

Solso, in his book, The Psychology of Art and the Evolution of the Conscious
Brain, puts forth a framework for tying together the many areas of
consciousness, in order to lay out for the reader the scientific basis for the
emergence of art as an evolved function of the brain

The Framework

Attention: The focusing of cognizance on internal or external things is

Attention. We are able to direct our attention, and hence our consciousness,
to internal or external events. It includes topics such as: transitive
consciousness (being conscious of something; Hacker, 2000), sensation and
perception, illusions of time, visual approaches, binocular rivalry, priming
studies, visual illusions, altered states, executive functions, error detection
and prioritizing.

Wakefulness: It is defined as the continuum from sleep to alertness.

Consciousness is a mental state, with an arousal component. It includes
topics such as: sleep, dreaming, lucid dreaming, intransitive consciousness,
alertness, and altered states.

Architecture: It refers to the physical locations of physiological structures

(and their related processes) that underpin consciousness. It includes topics
such as: neural correlates of consciousness, fMRI studies, visual pathways,
ERP studies, access functions.

Recall of Knowledge: Consciousness allows humans to gain access to

knowledge through recall of personal information and knowledge of the
world. Includes topics such as: memory, metacognition, self awareness, self
monitoring.

Emotive: The affective components associated with consciousness. It

includes topics such as: experienced consciousness, feeling, qualia.
Novelty: The propensity not only to focus on central thoughts and events,
but to seek out novel, creative, and innovative items. It includes topics such
as: intentionality, curiosity, and agency.

Emergence: Consciousness is distinctive from other neural processes in the

respect that it deals with private, internal, and self thoughts.
Unlike other neural processes, those related to at least some aspects of
consciousness appear to loop on internal information and gives the
phenomenological impression of emerging from the activity of the brain. It
includes topics such as: the hard problem, qualia.

Selectivity: Constantly selecting a very few thoughts to consider at any

given time, which may change rapidly given the intrusion of new thoughts or
external cues. It includes topics such as: spotlight models, organization
functions, control functions.

Subjectivity: Each person’s conscious experience is unique. Chalmers

(1995) calls it the “subjective inner life of the mind.” This aspect of
consciousness often leads to questions such as what it is like to “be”
something (Nagel, 1981; Sloman, 1994), from a rock, to a flower, to a dolphin
to a human. It includes problems such as: qualia, phenomenology.