  On views such as Carruthers', consciousness is grounded in cognitive processes that are highly specific and modular — indeed, irrelevant for the perceptual, motivational and cognitive processes involved with all nonhuman animal behavior. Given that most of the cognitive processes (and corresponding brain-systems) involved with human activities are shared with nonhuman animals, this line of thinking implies that much of human activity is nonconscious as well. Thus, for example, Carruthers (1989, 1992) argued that all animal behavior can be assimilated to the non-conscious activities of humans, such as driving while distracted (“on autopilot”), or to the capacities of “blindsight” patients whose damage to visual cortex leaves them phenomenologically blind in a portion of their visual fields (a “scotoma”) but nonetheless able to identify things presented to the scotoma. (He refers to both of these as examples of “unconscious experiences”.)