Behavioral and Brain Sciences



Short Communication

Real rules are conscious


Axel Cleeremans a1 and Arnaud Destrebecqz a1
a1 Cognitive Science Research Unit, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique, B-1050, Belgium axcleer@ulb.ac.be adestre@ulb.ac.be http://srsc.ulb.ac.be/axcWWW/axc.html

Abstract

In general, we agree with Pothos's claim that similarity and rule knowledge are best viewed as situated on the extreme points of a single representational continuum. However, we contend that a distinction can be made between “rule-like” and “rule-based” knowledge: Rule-based, symbolic knowledge is necessarily conscious when it is applied. Awareness thus provides a useful criterion for distinguishing between sensitivity to functional similarity and knowledge of symbolic rules.