Bernard Baars

{{Short description|Dutch neurobiologist (born 1946)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}}

Bernard J. Baars (born 1946 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands) is a former Senior Fellow in Theoretical Neurobiology at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, US. He is currently an Affiliated Fellow there.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

He is best known as the originator of the global workspace theory, a concept of human cognitive architecture and consciousness.{{Cite web|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527520.400-firing-on-all-neurons-where-consciousness-comes-from.html?full=true&print=true|title = Firing on all neurons: Where consciousness comes from}}According to [http://www.informationphilosopher.com/solutions/scientists/baars/ The Information Philosopher (link to website)], Baars has restored credibility to the "ancient metaphor of the mind as theater", accessed 6 January 2014. He previously served as a professor of psychology at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, where he conducted research into the causation of human errors and the Freudian slip,{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/27/science/do-freudian-slips-betray-a-darker-hidden-meaning.html?&pagewanted=all|title = Do 'Freudian Slips' Betray a Darker, Hidden Meaning?|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 27 November 1984|last1 = Goleman|first1 = Daniel}} and as a faculty member at the Wright Institute.{{Cite web|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg17423484.100|title=The grand illusion}}

Baars co-founded the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness{{cite web |url=http://www.theassc.org/ |title = theASSC.org – Association of Scientific Studies of Consciousness}} and the Academic Press journal Consciousness and Cognition, which he also edited, with William P. Banks, for "more than fifteen years".According to [http://www.psychologytoday.com/experts/bernard-j-baars-phd Psychology Today (link)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107091506/http://www.psychologytoday.com/experts/bernard-j-baars-phd |date=7 January 2014 }}, accessed 6 January 2014.

In addition to research on global workspace theory with Professor Stan Franklin and others,{{cite web |url=http://ccrg.cs.memphis.edu/papers.html |title = CCRG – Cognitive Computing Research Group – Papers}} Baars has done work to reintroduce the topic of the conscious brain into the standard college and graduate school curriculum, by writing college textbooks and general-audience books, web teaching, advanced seminars, and course videos.{{Cite web|url=https://sites.google.com/site/conseminar/|title = Conseminar}}