Some Thought Experiments

Our local Faith and Science study group has recently spent a lot of time discussing psychology, mind, and consciousness from various perspectives. It is clear that there is a wide range of views on these subjects, and that, while scientists have made great strides in neurobiology, brain structure and mental functioning, the "hard problem of consciousness" remains a profound mystery. Indeed, even defining what constitutes "consciousness" is fraught with difficulty. 

I will not resolve any of these aspects, of course, but from pondering our studies, I have collected some ideas about what individuals can do to explore their own consciousness. Not to worry, none of what follows involves danger, drugs or otherwise major changes in consciousness. These are simply ways to look at how you remember your past, to collect words about how you think, and to try out a few exercises in self-awareness; that is, exploring your mind by thinking about thinking. I hope they will help some get a better grip on their own thinking processes.

1. Remembering the Past:

Thinking about events from your past, choose one that is clear in your mind, not too positive or negative, yet memorable. How are you recalling it in your mind? Is it verbal, as in speech or words, or is it visual as in a still image or a short movie sequence? Some people are verbal thinkers and some are primarily visual, while others mix these modes. As you recall this event, where are you in the memory? Are you experiencing it first person - through your own eyes or ears - or do you see yourself in the third person, as someone hearing or watching you as it happened? Here too, different people perceive their memories differently.

Most people are aware that our own memories are sometimes deceptive and play tricks on us, leaving us feeling unsettled, especially when the memory seems so clear, although proven wrong. Next time you are corrected or discover your memory error, think about what precisely you remembered wrongly, and where might that error have come from? Were you making it up as in wishful thinking, filling in a gap between the parts that are correct, or did you truly believe it happened that way? For instance, I have a lousy memory for verbal exchanges. I rarely remember the actual words, but think I have the gist of the conversation. Then someone will correct my faulty understanding, revealing my inner assumptions or preconceptions. 

How much of your own memories do you think are accurate, and how do you know? Most of us have (seemingly) good memories for some things, and poor memories for other sorts of things. In my case, I remember concepts and numbers that were relevant to my career, but am terrible with peoples' faces and names.

2. Searching Your Mind:

Speaking of memories, how do you find yours? Do past events come back instantly in full detail, or do you have to dredge them out slowly by bits and then piece them together? As you go over the memory, do further details fall into place, or do they seem utterly lost. Does a photo of the place or event trigger more details or associated memories? When someone else is recalling a shared memory, does that improve yours for the same event? When someone mentions a memory you cannot remember, but should, do you somehow search around in your mind for it, or try to tie it into something you do recall?

How do you proceed with a memory search? What does it feel like to search your brain for something?  What is happening in your mind or head as you search? Do you talk to yourself? Do you see your memories as a library or disk drive you are searching through? Or is it more like a cluttered, dingy, dusty basement, with random stuff piled up and fading off into the distance. Is there some method to your searching or do you just mentally browbeat yourself trying to force out the memory? Do some approaches work and others not so much? Putting words to your mental processes can be difficult but also, perhaps, revealing.

3. Word Searches:

Everyone searches for words at times, especially when trying to compose something in writing. The worst is struggling for a word while in conversation. The thoughts come together into sentences and roll out of your mouth smoothly, until you hit a mental block and are left hemming and hawing hoping the correct word will come to mind. While typing or writing, you might get stuck suddenly, knowing there is a word for the concept you're thinking of, but unable to recall it. You can think of its definition, and maybe even some similar, but not quite right words, but the right word remains hidden from your mind. You press on as best you can, perhaps using other words, but later, the word will pop into your head, often unexpectedly. How does that happen for you? And then, is it actually the correct word you were looking for, or does it turn out not to be quite what you wanted? 

What mental process do you go through while searching your mind for the elusive right word? How do you dig around in your mind for a particular word? You know that you know it, but somehow cannot bring it to mind. It is hidden somewhere in your subconscious. Think about how do you know that you know the word even if you cannot "find" it? Do you have clues, such as begins with a "c", or do you get stuck cycling through "it's sort of like this" thoughts? Then does it seem close "on the tip of your tongue" and then slip away again? What does that process and your progress toward remembering say about your mind and its mental processes? Then, what feeling or "aha" thought comes when the word magically appears in your head again? Is it a happy rush, "ah there it is", or an "of course, dummy" thought? What do you do next if you are away from the work that needed the word? Do you subsequently forget it and have the same difficulty recalling it again?

4. Mental Development:

A lot can be learned about psychology by observing child development, either from your own past, or by observing yours or others' children - how they learn and do things, like observing, controlling their hands, crawling, talking, walking, etc. New-born babies must be born scientists, observing the world they come into, then automatically formulating mental models or theories about that reality: what are those things waving around before me? Oh I can control them, making them move (my hands). Or how to understand all those contrasting colours, lights and shadow edges and how they change (the room around). Then there are the sounds, some of which seem familiar from earlier (in the womb), others repeated, but so many new. And then feelings of pain, pleasure, contentment, discomfort, etc. So much to perceive or experience and then to integrate.

Each child's mind has to figure out what to make of all this, putting it together into a complex set of overlapping models about reality that they can use to understand their expanding world and to develop further, with additional inputs and correctives. Later on there is the example of children learning to talk and form sentences. For instance in English they learn that past tense words end in the "ed" sound, so initially the past of "go" becomes "goed". Only later, with feedback, do they learn "went" and other irregular verbs. Can you think of any other aspects of child development that reveal something about how their minds work? Sometimes the adults around the children can almost see the gears turning in the child's head as they think through some concept or new datum. As you think back to your own childhood, do you remember any times when you had an "aha" thought about the world around you or your relation in it? Or how about having a firm idea about something that later proved false?

Still thinking back to your own childhood. What are your earliest memories? Are they visual and/or auditory? Is there action and/or dialogue? Are the memories complete, or just a few vague perceptual wisps or emotional content? Indeed, are they actual memories, or are they maybe just memories of memories, of your previously having remembered them? How "real" are they to you now? Are there feelings associated with those memories, and do you still feel those? Do you still interpret or understand the memories as you first experienced the events, or have you adjusted how you see them, based on later maturity and understanding about them? 

5. Thinking in Your Sleep:

Dreams have been studied at length by psychologists and non-scientists for centuries, and there are numerous theories on why we dream and what our dreams mean, if anything. Our dreams usually fade upon wakening. How does that feel like for you as you wake up and notice the dream slipping away? And if you want to remember a dream, how do you mentally capture it so that you can remember it well enough to share later? What do your dreams mean to you? Do you like dreaming? How coherent and logical are your dreams? Do they make sense during the dream, or even later when awake? If you speak two languages, do you dream in both of them? Are the other people in your dreams from your past or your present? Can you wake yourself up from a bad dream to stop it? Or perhaps you have lucid dreams - ones that you consciously control?

This raises questions about falling asleep and waking up. As you fall asleep are you aware of doing so, or do things just go quiet and empty and then you are asleep, unknown to yourself? Is it sudden or gradual, easy or difficult to fall asleep? Do you feel like you are losing aspects of your mind or sinking into a lower consciousness level? If something brings you back to consciousness as you are falling off, are you aware that you were asleep? On the other hand, when you cannot sleep, do you know the reason why or is it just not happening? What seems to be keeping you awake? 

In the morning, when you wake up, is that sudden or slow, does your awareness sort of gather and develop, come in pieces, or is it there all at once? If you wake up to an alarm or radio, does that first enter your dream for a few seconds, or is it instantly clear what is happening? When first awake, are you groggy and fuzzy-headed? If so what does that feel like and what do you do mentally to dispel it? What is in your mind during your waking? Do your dreams begin to mix with reality or do you slip in and out of consciousness, perhaps in part or at different levels? It's not easy paying attention as you fall asleep or wake up, but if you try, you might get some insights into your mind.

6. Learning Something New:

Learning a new or different skill or procedure - such as riding a bicycle - at first is somewhat difficult and needs your full attention, concentrating on every aspect. You make a lot of mistakes but figure out how to correct them. Then it slowly gets easier and certain aspects start to become automatic, and finally, habitual: you can now do them without thinking about the details. The question to ponder is, how does that work in your mind? What are the mental stages in learning something new?

People talk about "muscle memory" for physical skills, but mostly it seems when you learn you are somehow training your subconscious in this new task or set of actions. An analogy would be writing a software subroutine for your brain. At first you need to look at everything in detail to get each step right, then as you improve, pieces of it seem good and finished, while others need more work or correction (debugging?). Finally, the routine seems good and you store it away somehow below the conscious level, and set your mind on other things. When you need to use that learning again, it comes up and starts to work, running smoothly with little conscious effort, especially if you have used it often. Of course the mind is not some software operating in the brain's hardware (or wetware), but it is an interesting analogy. Think about how you consolidate and settle some learning or practice. How does that proceed for you?

One clear example is driving a car. After years of doing so, it seems almost automatic, requiring no conscious effort. The next time you are driving along a straight highway, look down and watch your hands on the steering wheel. Are you consciously controlling them or do they just steer the car by themselves? Of course you shouldn't try this, but if you were to close your eyes for a few seconds, what would your hands then do? Clearly there is a feedback loop from your visual perception of the vehicle's position and direction on the road, to your hands constantly adjusting the steering wheel to maintain a steady state. Just as clearly, that feedback loop does not pass through your consciousness. Indeed, if you consciously tried to control your hand motions, you would likely become a danger on the highway!

While driving normally, you can engage your conscious mind in totally different activities such as singing a song or holding a conversation with your passenger. Indeed, there have been times when I was so engrossed in a conversation that I drove right past my highway exit. It seems that my conscious route planning forgot to set an "interrupt" for my subconscious driving. Other such "interrupts" that bring driving back up to the conscious level include a sudden stoppage up ahead, a funny noise from your motor or tires, or a pinging from your control panel. In such ways the act of driving shifts up and down through the layers of your consciousness.

This process of learning something new and then committing it to subconscious behaviour is, of course, essential for humans. It would be impossible to live if every perception and action response had to be consciously managed and initiated. Yet aside from a few basic non-conscious abilities, almost everything we do every day was learned at some point in our life and most of it has been committed to our subconscious. Our conscious thinking then makes decisions - such as what route to drive - and then sets some sort of supervisory routine, with suitable fail-safe interrupts, in place to keep track of what we are doing, while allowing our conscious mind to do something else. 

7. Non-Conscious Thinking:

Psychology teaches, and we have noted above, that a lot of mental activity (AKA thinking) goes on subconsciously.  However, psychology seems to have difficulty defining and explaining our subconscious, its differing levels, and the interactions among them and our conscious selves. We do many things by rote (unthinkingly) or while thinking about something else (e.g. while driving), paying little conscious attention to the fully automatic parts. We are largely unaware of most of the perceptions our brain receives constantly: those feelings in our body as we sit reading a book, the familiar background noises around us, the well-known visual surroundings at home as we do chores, etc. We are usually unaware of all the things around us that are "normal" to our minds.

There must surely be multiple levels of awareness or consciousness.  Some are fully automatic and we ignore them completely unless some sort of "interrupt" brings them to our awareness. Other levels are monitors or supervisory, working off in a "corner of our mind" to make sure the automatic stuff is going well, such as keeping to the side of the road while riding a bike. Some we watch for, ready to take action while doing other things, such as waiting for the light to change while stopped in our car. The conscious levels too may differ. Some are just going about our normal tasks, planning and sequencing what to do minute by minute. The highest level may be concentrating so closely on something that we tune out the other levels. 

Just as there are "subroutines" that you let your subconscious self perform, There may be other tasks you purposely delegate to your subconscious at some level. For instance, a problem worries you, so you decide to "sleep on it". Or you may consciously turn away from something disturbing, allowing your subconscious to process it so that you can handle it better the next time it comes to mind. What does it mean to bury something deep in your subconscious? How do you think about levels of consciousness in your own mind. Are they distinct or is it a continuum from totally unconscious up to full concentration? 

8. Streams of Consciousness:

Sit or lie down in a quiet place, away from distractions. Quiet your mind away from urgent or current issues, relax, close your eyes and just let your mind wander. Where does it go? After a few minutes, stop and then "rewind" and recall where the stream took you. Do you track this stream from the start, or backwards from the end, or out of order? Is it easy or hard to remember what you were thinking? Then, think about the changes or shifts in the thoughts during the stream. What caused them, did you consciously shift back and forth or did they just happen? Did you leave loose ends behind and move on, or complete some other thought first? This exercise could be the start of meditation or introspection: thinking about your own thinking.

From a different perspective, when you are concentrating on a task or some demanding mental activity, do you get distracted easily, or do you get so far into it that you lose track of what is around you? Perhaps both of these apply at different times? What is it that distracts you or draws you out of your reverie? Can you learn (i.e. teach yourself) to be less distracted? Does practice in concentration help you do it better? 

Alternately, when focused on a task that is not going well, like worrying or waiting frustrated, try distracting yourself by consciously thinking of something else, perhaps something pleasant like a memory, or more enjoyable task. Is that easy for you to do? Can you be in charge of where your thinking goes in a controlled and chosen way, or does your mind seem to go where it wants regardless of your will? How well can you discipline your mind? What does that even look like?

Here is a mental exercise in consciousness control. While sitting or lying still - it may help to reduce distraction by closing your eyes - focus your attention on one part of your body, feeling any sensations from there: the touch, warmth, any little pain or pressure. For example, can you zero in on the 4th toe on your left foot and hold your awareness there? Can you then shift your attention to your right shoulder? Is there any part of your body, internal or external that you cannot access in this way? And how closely or narrowly can you focus? Sweeping your conscious awareness in this way, from the top of your head, slowly down through other parts of your body to your toes, is one way to relax, feeling the tension and stresses flow away. This can also be an effective tool to shift your awareness away from a painful part of the body. By focusing on the normal feelings elsewhere, minor aches and pains that bother you may seem to fade to insignificance or become more tolerable.

9. Language and Consciousness:

The connection between consciousness and language is fascinating. Some people seem to always have a running commentary in their head - talking with (or to) themselves. Some psychologists think that language is essential for consciousness, but that may be too simplistic, especially if they don't say what they mean by "consciousness". Other people seem to think in images, "seeing" plans and actions unfold in their minds ahead of time. For example, anyone who knows internal combustion engines, upon hearing the word  "crankshaft", will get an instant image in their mind, whereas it is not easy to describe one of those in words. What sorts of non-linguistic thoughts do you experience? Do your mental images come with word labels or verbal descriptions, or are they silent in your mind?

When washing dishes, we don't usually think to ourselves, "pick up brush, scrub plate in this way, turn on rinse water, place plate in rack" and so on, we just do it. We are conscious that we are doing it, while thinking other thoughts verbally in our head as we proceed: singing along with some music, carrying on a conversation, or worrying about your kid being out late. Presumably the dishwashing (once you have mastered it) is non-linguistic thinking somehow. But can you think consciously without anything verbal going on in your head? Can you choose to do that or does it just happen in between other thoughts? Can you consciously turn off your internal dialogue? Can you be conscious without language? 

10. Musical Mystery:

Psychologists are intrigued by how music makes memories so much stronger and easier to remember. While memorizing a prose paragraph is usually difficult - a task high-school students hate - most of us can remember the tune and lyrics of songs from decades ago, without even trying hard. Even songs we didn't care for or may only have heard a few times pop into our heads and we can sing parts of them. Somehow the tones and rhythms of music augment the memory process. This association has apparently been used by some to improve their memories. 

It seems that most people can remember significant parts of more than a thousand songs they have heard in the past. And most of us have had the experience of an "ear worm"; a song that comes to mind and then won't leave us alone! It turns out that our musical preferences are usually set in our late teens and early twenties - perhaps one reason why older people don't like current music styles. It seems likely that most of the songs you remember forever were learned before you were 30 years old. Is that true for you? What is the earliest song you learned and still remember?

11. Changing Consciousness:

Have you ever experienced "altered states of consciousness" or any sort of "raised consciousness"? Some people have had such experiences, with or without help from drugs, meditation, etc. If so, how was it for you? Can you describe it to yourself or to another person, or was it so enigmatic and ethereal  that words do not suffice? Or maybe you forgot what it was like as soon as it was over?

If you have not had any such experience, you could still try to observe yourself when drunk, high on drugs, sleep deprived, or excited about something. What can you report about that state of mind? Were there changed perceptions, different thoughts, a new outlook, or any supposedly "mind opening" aspects to it? Were those true changes or just shifts in perspective? Could you remember them clearly afterward or did they fade? Clearly chemicals, environment and various situations can change our consciousness: fight-or-flight reaction, adrenalin rush, oxytocin / dopamine / serotonin / melatonin, etc. each can affect our mood, feelings and attitudes, and hence, our consciousness as well as behaviour.

12. Philosophy of Mind:

To wrap up this post, what is your philosophy of mind? Are you a brain that thinks ("mind is what the brain does"), or are you a mind with a brain (mind is more than the cells in your head)? This gets into deep metaphysics, but is worth thinking about. What about the mind-body duality? Is your mind separate from your body or just the thinking "wetware" part of it? Do any of your thoughts come from elsewhere? E.g. gut feelings, ancestral awareness, insights from the blue, dreams, or even cosmic consciousness. When all is written and talked about it, consciousness and the human mind remain a profound mystery. 

Each of us is free to explore our own thoughts and conscious processes and draw our own conclusions. Many more mental exercises could doubtless be appended here. Can you think of any additional ones yourself? It is interesting to delve into how we think and how the mind behaves under normal and novel conditions. Did you learn anything in reading this, or was your consciousness "raised" in any way with these exercises? In any case, I hope some of these experiments and descriptions helped you understand yourself a little bit more. 

Aspects of Consciousness

Awareness, mind, sentience, thinking, perception, introspection, self - all that we group together as "consciousness" - are fundamental to human beings, but consciousness is a difficult subject to define, measure or specify in a coherent way, although attempts have been made to do that. Just defining the word is fraught with controversy, uncertainty and more than a little confusion. Some want to define it narrowly, as Julian Jaynes does in limiting it to introspection alone: thinking about thinking, or thinking about your own mind and thoughts. Others want to define it broadly as panpsychism, in which everything - even a rock - is "conscious" to some degree. There are even some materialists who claim that consciousness is just an illusion! However, I expect most people are more reasonable, knowing what they mean by being conscious, even if they cannot define it precisely.

Beyond knowing what consciousness is and how to reasonably define it, there is the "hard problem of consciousness", being able to understand it and how we humans can be conscious in the full sense of self awareness and being a thinking agent in the world. Part of the problem is that consciousness involves numerous different aspects of brain and mind activity, many of which are themselves poorly defined, overlooked, or misunderstood. Some claim that the "mind" is what the brain does, while others find evidence that the mind is dualistic, at least partly a separate entity - the "soul" if you will - and merely uses the brain to act as its location and interface for agency in the body and the external world. 

Having recently read a lot about the mind, artificial intelligence, consciousness, and being human, I began to collect aspects of consciousness in an attempt to wrap my head (as it were) around the concept and thereby, somehow, better understand it. The following is my collection of processes or mental activities that can be considered aspects of conscious experience and behaviour. I have attempted to group these into some semblance of logical categories:

Sensation:
This is receiving the signals arriving from your senses:  sight, sound, touch, smell, taste, proprioception, etc. These come into our brains all the time, but are often (usually?) not noticed or acknowledged by our minds. E.g. the nerves in my backside are constantly informing my brain about the pressures and temperatures they sense while I sit here typing, but I rarely am aware of them, much less pay attention to them. Typically, I take notice (become aware) only when there are unusual changes.

Awareness:
This is the next step in perception, taking in and recognizing what comes through the senses or your body: visual images, hearing voices, pain in your toe, emotions, and so on. For instance, I am vaguely aware of the sound of the air circulation in this room, the light coming in through the window, and other peripheral inputs, but here too, they do not usually impinge on my thinking.

Attention/Focus:
Here now is where we apply our minds to the perceptions we become aware of, paying attention to some aspect of your awareness in priority over most of the rest. This may be intentional, as in looking out the window and evaluating what I see there. Or it may be like an interrupt routine, where some perception suddenly changes and you react by focusing on it to see what happened or if you need to respond. The air flow stops suddenly, or there is a cold feeling in my seat. Those are usually dynamic, or a change that rises to the level of awareness, and somehow triggers your brain to get the mind involved. The triggers probably arise from your subconscious, which is monitoring much of the sensations, and raises a flag or interrupt to your mind as an awareness, allowing your mind to focus on it. The interrupt may be gentle as in a persistent itch, or may be very high priority as a sudden stab of pain in your back or knee.

Feelings/Emotion:
These are the internal, mental sensations as it were, because they originate within the brain or the mind itself. This includes all the emotions at a reasonable level: pleasure, hurt, disappointment, sorrow, anger, joy, hope, etc. It also includes feelings like depression, excitement, expectation, comfort, boredom, etc., which are different from feeling a touch or coldness and other external senses. Here too, there may be numerous emotions and feelings floating around my person at a low level, at any given time, only one or a few of which I am aware, yet they are present if I pay attention. For example, I may recall that I'm still upset about something that happened yesterday, but I put it aside to think about (pay attention to) something I deem as higher priority.

Concentration:
This is the highest level of consciousness regarding perceptions and attention. In this mode, you apply most, if not all, of your conscious attention and resources to one perception and its correlates or consequences. That flash out the window might be an explosion or lightning; better pay attention, investigate, decide what to do and initiate action. During this event, all unrelated perceptions, attention, thoughts and activities are side-lined or put on hold as you deal with the highest priority. This also applies internally, to deep thinking, focusing on a task or issue, or dealing with a strong emotion that takes over other aspects, shifting other awareness to the periphery. An example of that is focusing on doing a Sudoku puzzle to the point where you only realize you leg is stiff after completing the puzzle.

Understanding:
This is the internal, mental aspect that goes along with awareness; e.g. knowing what you are looking at, understanding the words on the page, hearing what your neighbour is saying, identifying that smell, realizing that you are angry or tired. Your mind has engaged with the sensations and perceptions or your own internal thoughts, to extract sense and even meaning from them. At one level, I can glance at a page in a book and realize ("understand") that there is a block of print there. At the next level, I can focus on the print, see that it is in English, and can read it, knowing each of the words. Then I can understand what I'm reading; what the words mean and how the sentences flow, imparting information to my mind. My mind is then thinking about what I am reading.

Interpretation:
While understanding as described usually does not require much focus or attention, taking it to the next level does require thought and application of other mental resources. To deeply understand or to gain knowledge and learn requires that we interpret what we see, hear, read or feel. And that involves connecting the initial understanding with your mental model of reality to see what it means at a deeper level, or to you personally. Does what I'm reading fit into my prior understanding of the subject? Is it coherent and meaningful? Does this new information change anything for me? 

Reasoning/Processing:
This is perhaps the first level of truly human mentality. Most higher animals can do the above aspects in their consciousness - setting aside the "reading" example. Any dog or cat can assess its perceptions, understand and interpret them from its own perspective, then concentrate on and take action regarding them. Reasoning, however, is the further application of organization and logic used to draw conclusions or make surmises about something being thought about: deduction, induction, speculation and hypothesizing. Some animals can do this at a low level, but it takes a human mind to fully do it, and even then we make mistakes. This aspect is what is used to solve puzzles, do your homework, follow a complicated script, argue a point, work out an explanation, etc.

Analysis/Calculation:
This is perhaps a higher level of reasoning: applying learned tools to study and process received data of any sort; for example, mathematics, comparative inference, balance of probability, fitting to known facts, etc.  This level requires more mental resources than mere reasoning or normal processing. Some of this is algorithmic, how to do long division, writing code, translating a foreign language, etc. We may feel these are more like "hard work" as we have to apply a lot of mental effort to get where we want to go. The more involved, or novel the task at hand, the "harder" it may seem, and the higher the probability of making a mistake. 

Recall:
Now we shift into the information and memory aspects of consciousness. Recall is pulling facts out of memory: words, names, meanings, identifications, knowledge about reality, etc. all without a time stamp. Recall is one of the resources needed for almost all mental activity; putting names to perceptions: that is "snow", this is "hot", "things fall down", Joe is my friend, and so on - everything you know as simple factoids. You aren't born knowing all these, but you have learned them and your brain keeps them available to support your thinking and mind. These are memories that raise frustration when unavailable; e.g. "I know there's a word for X but I cannot think of it", or "What was the name of that person I met last week?"

Remembering/Reviewing:
This goes beyond simple recall by applying a personal time-stamp to the memory, your own life path/history, and recalling sequences of events known to you, or taken from someone else, as in remembering the plot of a story you heard, or the course of a news story you read. This aspect requires putting recalled information into some sort of temporal (or causal, logical, numeric or other) order for consideration in your mind. Psychologists differentiate between short and long term memory, but in terms of conscious activity, both are used in the same way, I think.

Narrating:
This is the next step in remembering; putting together and presenting a coherent story; e.g. of a dream, a childhood event, yesterday's meeting, or the plot of a book or TV program. The remembering is combined with processing and reasoning to make for a proper story, and then translating it into language and acting it through to actually present it, even if just in your own mind.

Planning:
If remembering looks to past reality, then planning is the opposite, preparing and putting together a sequence for possible future activity to make it become reality. Planning, of course uses recall to piece together credible possibilities, and uses time-sequencing to fit them into a causal chain of practical events. This may be brief and simple as getting up in the morning - often a repeated plan (a routine) - or it may be complex and long term as in planning your next business venture.

Learning:
This necessary aspect is the gathering of and grasping meaning from new perceptions, information, ideas or facts, and adding them into your memory. Much of this is done unconsciously, or automatically, of course. For instance when you go for a walk in a new area of town, you can easily (we hope) retrace your steps without too much thought. Some of it is straightforward, as in learning what your spouse did at work today. Some of it is abstract, as in retaining the conclusions of some task you performed in order to apply it to a different task. Some of it is slow but deep ,as in learning to ride a bicycle - almost like a subroutine that your mind assembles to store in your subconscious for almost mindless use once you've learned it well. Learning applies some of the above aspects of mental work to generate and save the results for future usage. 

Modelling:
This is a key aspect of any serious mentality. This is the collecting, assembling, adjusting and maintaining your mental image and understanding of reality; integrating new data into your world-view. Much of this is done subconsciously, of course, but your mind is constantly fiddling with or applying said model as you go through your day. Your overall modelling begins at birth as you discover your hands and how to use them, and how to interpret sensations coming from your eyes as an external reality. The modelling continues through life as you learn new things about the world and fit them into your reality. There is obviously a close connection to memory, but the model is the overall structure of your reality as you experience and perceive it. You know the layout of your house, street, workplace, etc. You know - for the most part - what is in your closet, how to drive your car, what happens if you open the door, who else is around you, what politics are happening these days, and so on. Your model is used in recall, understanding, reasoning, planning, and almost everything you do in your mind. It is an active, dynamic resource for who you are and all that you do. Our models are not always self-consistent, and models can be disrupted by new facts, as when I first learned that Pi is not equal to 22/7.

Relating:
This is presumably a higher-level mental activity that uses many of the above aspects for engaging thoughts about other people or things, toward communicating, understanding, empathizing, judging, analysing and interacting with them. "Theory of mind" fits here, as does listening sympathetically, or debating someone. Even simple conversation requires relating, and this can be done socially - with other person or persons - or individually, as in your head as an imagined or remembered conversation, taken in different directions. Other forms of relating include: prayer, using your cell phone's features, interacting with a pet, talking back to TV commercials, etc.

Action:
This is just your initiating movement - any bodily actions, including speech - via your mental activity to perform the action. As an agent, your mind needs to have agency; the ability to do something physical, to make your muscles move - the reverse of sensation. The actions may be planned or intended, but are often mere reaction like a startle reflex, or perhaps unconscious, as when coughing. Some actions, such as walking, are consciously initiated and guided, but otherwise subconscious - you don't mentally control your various muscles and balance mechanisms. Indeed, most of your actions are a form of subconscious muscular "subroutine" that you have learned and call into use when needed: talking, typing, brushing your teeth, eating, riding that bike. To see how programmed these indeed are, try doing them differently: using your other hand, a different keyboard, another language, etc. I don't recommend it, but trying to ride a bike with your hands swapped on the handlebars is a great example - almost back to square one in learning.

Introspection:
This is supposedly the pinnacle of consciousness: thinking about yourself, your mind and and your own thoughts; thinking about thinking - reflection, self awareness, self-image, every thought about your own mind and the "I" doing the thinking. This is entirely internal mental activity, but of course, uses many of the above mental aspects, and may result in changes to your reality, feelings, planning or actions. 

Stream of Consciousness:
This is the usually continuous, very subjective, mental flow of sensations, images, thoughts, ideas, words, feelings and qualia that we each experience inside our minds as we go about our day. It has been described as the movie of our life in which we are always the main actor as well as the audience. Most of the time we are in partial control as we go about our routines and plans, but most of the action is perception and unconscious routines that we take for granted. It is possible to lie down on the grass and look up at the sky and just let the stream flow where it will as thoughts come and go uninvoked. It is also possible to force your mind along a definitive path as when solving a math problem in your head. It is usually possible to "play back" the last few minutes of the stream by will and memory, as a form of introspection. It is difficult to have more than one stream at a time, although one can be paused in order to resume or begin another. And the stream may have multiple threads as when whistling and walking, while thinking about what to make for supper.

Verbalizing:
I wasn't sure where to fit this in, but it is another core aspect of consciousness: speaking internally to yourself, using language, as part of the stream of consciousness, or in preparation to speaking out loud (as an action). Some say that it is almost impossible for us to think without using language, although many animals appear to do so, and some people think more in images. Most people have a constant mental dialogue going on, sometimes with two or more parts when mentality thinking something through or considering alternatives - talking to yourself. When conversing with others or making an actual verbal presentation, of course, one is constantly planning or recalling (if memorized) the verbal sequence, which your subconscious then translates into actual speech. 

Meditation/Quieting:
This is essentially the attempt to stop or slow down the stream of consciousness; tuning out externalities while focusing (or emptying) the mind on something singular and simple for a time. One can focus on one's breathing or heartbeat, on a mental image or a single word, rejecting other perceptions and thoughts that may try to bubble up or impinge on the mind. This takes practice, I gather,  but it can be good for an individual to quiet the mind and take one's awareness away from the external world and any internal worries or concerns. In any case, it appears to be a distinct aspect of consciousness.

Aha!/Getting it:
There are some quirky aspects that come to mind for inclusion in this list. In this one, we have all had "aha!" moments when the facts and logic you have collected or worked through click into place and you feel a positive emotion of closure - usually short lived, but very satisfying. You "get it", you "grok", or suddenly understand the concept, idea or conclusion before you. This may be after a long time of concentration, or just as lart of learning as you go. It is related to but goes beyond "analysis", I think, and may be a very human thing. I wonder whether animals have Aha! experiences?

Obsessing:
This is a negative form of concentration, being absorbed by or focusing solely on one feeling, emotion or circumstance, beyond reason and (usually) to your own detriment: hatred, phobia, lust, pride, worry, narcissism, coveting - any of the seven deadly sins perhaps. We all probably do this occasionally for short periods. If it goes on too long, it may be a sign of mental  illness, perhaps PTSD, or past abuse. In severe cases, it is hard to pull the mind away from the feelings and surrounding thoughts. Your mind is stuck in a rut as it were and you are just spinning your wheels to complete the metaphor.

Clearly there are a lot of different aspects to consciousness. The reader may want to suggest others in the comments. There is obviously overlap among some of these and some readers may not like my definitions or examples. Readers may also see some of this as unnecessary hair splitting, but I think that distinguishing among these helps elucidate the differing applications of mental resources. As you go through your day, you might note which aspects you are applying at any given time in your stream of conscious activity. Does this form of introspection help you better understand yourself or others?

What is missing from all this is the mind itself, the "I" agent that is using the various aspects, the "self" receiving the perceptions, processing the algorithm, paying attention, verbalizing the thoughts. Above and on top of all these aspects of consciousness is the consciousness itself! This is the mysterious "me" or the acknowledged "you" that truly exists (cogito ergo sum!) but is hard to define and nail down. Yet without the self, all the above aspects are meaningless, do nothing, and serve little purpose. The mind or self is very real, and has lots of resources at its disposal to help it perform, but those do not define who it is, nor do they determine what thoughts occur within itself.

The core of consciousness remains a "hard problem" and a huge mystery: what/who am I? really!. Yet, I hope the above list of mental aspects helps you delve into your mysterious self a little bit. In closing, there is a whole other level to the mystery; the subconscious or unconscious part of the mind or self! Some people believe that is the larger part of the mind and its activity, all the parts below our conscious awareness - some as mentioned above. But that is a deeper subject going beyond todays' post.