Goal-directed manipulation of internal representations is a key element of human flexible behaviour, while consciousness is commonly associated with higher-order cognition and human flexibility. Current perspectives have only partially linked these processes, thus preventing a clear understanding of how they jointly generate flexible cognition and behaviour. Moreover, these limitations prevent an effective exploitation of this knowledge for technological scopes. We propose a new theoretical perspective that extends our ‘three-component theory of flexible cognition’ toward higher-order cognition and consciousness, based on the systematic integration of key concepts from Cognitive Neuroscience and AI/Robotics. The theory proposes that the function of conscious processes is to support the alignment of representations with multi-level goals. This higher alignment leads to more flexible and effective behaviours. We analyse here our previous model of goal-directed flexible cognition (validated with more than 20 human populations) as a starting GARIM-inspired model. By bridging the main theories of consciousness and goal-directed behaviour, the theory has relevant implications for scientific and technological fields. In particular, it contributes to developing new experimental tasks and interpreting clinical evidence. Finally, it indicates directions for improving machine learning and robotics systems and for informing real-world applications (e.g., in digital-twin healthcare and roboethics).

中文翻译：

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连接灵活的目标导向认知和意识：目标对齐表征内部操纵理论

对内部表征的目标导向操纵是人类灵活行为的关键要素，而意识通常与高阶认知和人类灵活性相关。目前的观点仅部分联系了这些过程，因此无法清楚地理解它们如何共同产生灵活的认知和行为。此外，这些限制阻碍了这些知识在技术领域的有效利用。我们提出了一种新的理论视角，基于认知神经科学和人工智能/机器人学关键概念的系统整合，将我们的“灵活认知三部分理论”扩展到高阶认知和意识。该理论提出，意识过程的功能是支持表征与多层次目标的一致性。这种更高的一致性会带来更灵活、更有效的行为。我们在此分析了我们之前的目标导向灵活认知模型（已在 20 多个人群中进行了验证），作为受 GARIM 启发的起始模型。通过连接意识和目标导向行为的主要理论，该理论对科学和技术领域具有相关意义。特别是，它有助于开发新的实验任务和解释临床证据。最后，它指出了改进机器学习和机器人系统以及为现实世界应用提供信息的方向（例如，在数字孪生医疗保健和机器人伦理学中）。