Global workspace theory

Global workspace theory (GWT) is a cognitive architecture and theoretical framework for understanding consciousness and was first introduced in 1988 by cognitive scientistBernard Baars. It was developed to qualitatively explain a large set of matched pairs of conscious and unconscious processes. GWT has been influential in modeling consciousness and higher-order cognition as emerging from competition and integrated flows of information across widespread, parallel neural processes.

Bernard Baars derived inspiration for the theory as the cognitive analog of the blackboard system of early artificial intelligence system architectures, where independent programs shared information.

Global workspace theory is one of the leading models of consciousness.