Self-Awareness and Cognition

This book seeks to help bridge the divide between the various theoretical definitions of self-awareness and the empirical study of the concept in fields such as experimental cognitive sciences and clinical neuroscience. To do so, it brings together theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions that discuss self-awareness in three specific domains of cognitive sciences: methods for assessing self-awareness; theoretical and ethical implications of self-awareness in clinical settings; and the repercussion of re-evaluating self-awareness within different cognitive theoretical models. Chapters in the first part of the book address how different methodological approaches for the study of self-awareness may lead to enhanced discussions of cognitive manifestations regarding self-processes. This part deals with the intersection between behavior, phenomenal awareness and cognitive traits associated with human self-process within experimental and psychological assessment, including notes from animal self-awareness. Then, chapters in the second part show how self-awareness can be a pivotal variable in the discussion of diagnosis, intervention and ethical issues pertaining to applied cognitive fields. Finally, theoretically driven chapters in the third part address how varied contexts of self-awareness expression may lead to renewed discussions in the field of enactive cognition. Together this set of chapters bring together current scientific data and theoretical reflections to point future directions for the scientific study of self-awareness. Self-Awareness and Cognition: New Perspectives from Cognitive Sciences will be of interest to researchers in the field of cognitive sciences as well as to anyone interested in the relationship between self-awareness and cognition in both applied and theoretical research fields, such as philosophy of mind and clinical neuroscience, among others.