The descriptive analysis is then set in the framework of self monitoring functions. Examples are given in the domains of emotion, action, and metacognition. In brief, based on introspection and functional considerations, I argue that our experience of an object, event, or idea is a complex of many parts. One component presents the few distinct features that are most relevant to our current topic or goal. But there is much more in subjective experience than just the most topic-relevant features.
Space permits only a few examples.
One group of components provides evaluation or metacognitive information, explicating the items in feature-awareness. Such information could not be given by just adding more features. Another kind of experience presents information about aspects not selected for feature-awareness. For example, our sense of an object's meaning can be thought of as a condensation or summary over a relatively large part of its multidimensional property space, in contrast to its few most topic-relevant dimensions. It is this, in addition to the feature-awareness, that fleshes out our experience of an object as more than an assemblage of parts.