APA Dictionary of Psychology

dissociable interactions and conscious experience model: a cognitive model proposing that linguistic, perceptual, and other kinds of knowledge are processed by independent memory modules, with consciousness operating as an awareness system that serves as a gateway to an executive system. Access to various types of knowledge depends on intact interactions between the consciousness awareness system and other components of the model. The model considers certain impairments (e.g., amnesia, alexia) as examples of “disconnects” in this interactive process. See modularity. [devised by U.S. psychologist Daniel L. Schacter (1952–  )]