ABSTRACT
The ability to anticipate and plan, to imagine and think, even to dream, presumes the ability to construct, off line as it were—internal representations of events that are not present. Off-line processes may represent events that are removed from the present by large intervals of time or space, or they may consist of a succession of small steps away from the present. This chapter shows how off-line and perceptual processes share certain cognitive and neural structures, to describe the conditions under which they compete for those resources, and to make some suggestions about the functional input for these "off-line" processes. It describes several neural network models of some characteristics of off-line processes, and suggests how they may be used to guide future research. The ability of the model to simultaneously satisfy both external and memorial constraints makes it a powerful mathematical tool for representing as an emergent characteristic, the subjective sense of the unity of conscious experience.
