Astronauts specify that it is not merely being in space that makes their time there so meaningful—there is something unique and profound about viewing and contemplating Earth from a distance.

The Overview Effect (2016)

David Yaden

Professor of Language

David B. Yaden Jr. (Ph.D., University of Oklahoma) is Professor of Language, Reading and Culture at the University of Arizona College of Education. Prior to his present position at UA, he held appointments at Emory University, the University of Houston, and the University of Southern California. He has been a principal investigator in the federally-funded Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA) where he supervised the implementation of an early literacy curriculum for Spanish-speaking preschoolers in inner-city Los Angeles. His research interests and specializations include developmental issues in early childhood education, the acquisition of literacy and biliteracy in young children, family literacy, theories of reading disability and the application of complex adaptive systems theory to growth in reading and writing.

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Date

March 2016

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Research Article

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4,976

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≈ 28 minutes

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481

The Overview Effect

Awe and Self-Transcendent Experience in Space Flight

Viewing the Earth from space has often prompted astronauts to report overwhelming
emotion and feelings of identification with humankind and the planet as a whole. In this
article, we explore this experience, known as the “overview effect.” We examine
astronaut accounts of the overview effect and suggest existing psychological constructs,
such as awe and self-transcendent experience, that might contribute to a psychological
understanding of this experience. We argue that the overview effect suggests directions
for future research on altered states of consciousness in new contexts, with potential
implications for better understanding well-being in isolated, confined, extreme (ICE)
environments such as space flight.

Mentioned in 1 document

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Ruben Laukkonen and Shamil Chandaria

A Beautiful Loop

Laukkonen and Chandaria propose that consciousness arises from a recursive brain process involving three key elements: a reality model, competitive inferences reducing uncertainty, and a self-aware feedback loop. This framework explains various states of awareness, including meditation, psychedelic experiences, and minimal consciousness. It also offers insights into artificial intelligence by connecting awareness to self-reinforcing predictions. The authors’ theory suggests that consciousness emerges when the brain’s reality model becomes self-referential, creating a “knowing itself” phenomenon. This recursive process underlies different levels of conscious experience and potentially informs AI development.

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