Accordingly, we compared the unconscious contextual structures underlying waking, nonlucid and lucid dream consciousness.
A. Waking
Baars’ GW model provides a model of waking consciousness. The GW model posits that waking consciousness is framed by a nested hierarchy of unconscious elements which Baars terms a context hierarchy. The context hierarchy is a relatively stable global construct that transforms through time as a function of learning and experience.
The context hierarchy of the waking personality is composed of many relatively distinct contexts which correspond to, or are a computational way to model, the sensory, perceptual, attentional, mnemonic, cognitive, metacognitive, goal and effector operations carried out unconsciously by the nervous system, but which in turn condition conscious experience. Contexts can be relatively more innate (such as the topographic organization of conscious perceptions) or relatively more learned (such as language and culture).
A context strongly dependent on learning can involve situation-dependent forms of cognition, in which the context remains latent until external circumstances dictate its full expression. An example of a situation-dependent context would be the knowledge and skills associated with piano playing. The full expression of a “piano playing context” is situationally dependent on the presence of an actual piano. When confronted with a piano, the “piano playing context” expresses itself as a nested hierarchy of effectors: the desire (or goal) to play triggers the necessary declarative knowledge (of notes and music, etc) which in turn triggers the necessary motor effectors (eye motions for reading music, hand motions for striking keys) resulting in the act of playing the piano.
According to Baars, context formation initially requires conscious participation. But, once established, contexts are unconscious factors framing conscious experience. Many such contexts accumulate within the waking personality as a function of learning and life experiences, and mold and frame the conscious aspects of waking.
B. Nonlucid Dreams
During nonlucid dreams, the consciousness of the dreamer is similarly constrained by unconscious contextual elements. These elements combine to form relatively transient global contexts that last only for a dream’s duration, or possibly through a series of sequential dreams. The transience of global contextual structures in dreams contrasts to the relatively stable context hierarchy framing waking consciousness. One factor contributing to the transient quality of dream contexts involves the dreamer operating “in the moment” in response to the dream context with no conscious memory of precedents or antecedents to the events occurring in the dream.
The unconscious global context framing nonlucid dream consciousness