Reconceptualizing consciousness as an intelligence: A five-level model of access consciousness

Abstract

Despite decades of theoretical and empirical work, consciousness has received comparatively limited attention within psychometrics and individual differences research. Building on Block's (1995) distinction between phenomenal and access consciousness, the present paper argues that access consciousness—the availability of information for reasoning, decision-making, and behavioral control—may be conceptualized as a structured cognitive capacity relevant to intelligence. Major theories of consciousness are reviewed to identify areas of both convergence and divergence with established models of cognitive ability. Drawing on structural dependencies among the types of information available to a system, a five-level model of access consciousness is introduced (Sensory, Perceptual, Causal, Intentional, and Meta-Consciousness), characterized by increasing informational complexity and supported by evidence relating to individual differences, neurophysiological correlates, developmental trajectories, and adaptive function. By framing access consciousness as a quantifiable construct with a hypothesized positive manifold across levels, the paper proposes a candidate group factor of access consciousness (Gac) amenable to future psychometric evaluation. The framework aims to bridge historically separated domains of consciousness and intelligence research, providing a basis for empirical investigation into whether individual differences in conscious access represent a meaningful dimension of cognitive ability.