EMI: Cognitive Cycle

It has been conjectured that a full WM processing sequence from input to output, called a “cognitive cycle,” takes a minimum of 200 msec (Baars & Franklin, 2003). This is equivalent to a maximum of about four or five decisions or goal formations or executions per second. In EMI, during episodic model generation, users may be able to refresh, change, update, and run their episodic model about four to five times a second. Baars and Franklin (2003) have explained that “more than one cognitive cycle can proceed at any given time” (p. 167) and that because of overlapping and automaticity as many as twenty cycles might be running per second. However, consciousness imposes seriality on otherwise concurrent processes thus only one single cycle can be conscious at any given instant.