Quote:On the drive home I was amazed to observe the numerous fields of corn we passed on the way back to town. I can distinctly remember thinking to myself, why did I not see these fields of corn while we were driving to the farm earlier
An explanation for this was given by Piaget without the need to refer to the nebulous concept of "consciousness".
Simplistically there is a continous two-way interaction between "cognitive states"(C) and "states of the world"(W) such that C1
perceives W1 which causes C1 to change to C2 which
perceives W2, and so on.
(
References Flavell "The Develpmental Psychology of Jean Piaget" and general texts on "Finite State Machine Theory")
BTW, the Piaget's answer to your question on "efficiency" is likely to be "no" because "cognitive states" (or "schemata") are consolidated by their exercise in
everyday life scenarios of personal significance to the perceiver. In that respect "interesting fictional examples" would seem a good substitute,