... The first kind of consciousness we will observe involves accessing information provided by other mental processes, and was coined 'Access Consciousness' by Block (1991). We may say that a mental state is 'access conscious' when the content of that mental state is poised for use in reasoning and the rational control of speech and behaviour. We have a "kind of conscious awareness involving access to information" about our own reasoning (Braisby 2002). Put simply, we become aware of how we are reasoning, or of accessing perceptual information about the world around us. We are also enabled to verbally report the mental processes we use. Let us observe an example of this in everyday functioning. Suppose you were engaged in intense thought when suddenly, at midnight, you realised that there was, and had been for some time, a deafening pounding sound going on. You were aware of the noise all ...

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