# introspection (access)

the self-model reading its own pattern rather than the thing itself, so what the model has no terms for is reported as nothing there rather than as not read.

- Computed level: L15 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: epistemic

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [self-model](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-self-model.reflexive), [self](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-self.personal), [model](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-model.representation), [read](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-read.information), [pattern](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-pattern.regularity), [terms](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-terms.language), [report](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-report.information), [nothing](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-nothing.absence), [rather](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-rather.comparative)

**Through:** The self-model queries its own compressed pattern instead of the underlying process, and whatever falls outside the model's vocabulary returns as an absence rather than as an unread region.

**Novel properties:**
- bounded self-access
- absence-shaped blind regions
- vocabulary-limited reporting

## Examples
- People asked to report the moment they formed an intention report it later than the readiness signals that appear first in EEG recordings. *(neuroscience)*
- A profiler that only instruments function calls reports an idle program even while the time is going to garbage collection it cannot see. *(computing)*
- Shoppers asked why they preferred a product confidently name reasons that the experimental setup shows played no role in the choice. *(psychology)*

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-introspection.access*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-introspection.access.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*