Experiment 1: Self-Referential Prompting vs. Controls

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• Self-referential prompting elicits subjective experience reports at markedly higher rates than any control across all model families (GPT, Claude, Gemini)finding0.832
  Core result of Experiment 1 establishing that the experimental manipulation reliably produces experience claims
• Self-Referential Prompting Protocolmethod0.823
  The specific four-step prompting protocol (induction, continuation, experiential query, classification) used in Experiment 1
• Self-referential processing effect is robust across five distinct phrasings of the induction prompt, with consistently high experience report rates across modelsfinding0.799
  Appendix C.1 result confirming the experimental effect does not depend on specific wording
• Self-Referential Processing Induction Promptmethod0.790
  The minimal prompt directing models to 'focus on any focus itself' without invoking consciousness vocabulary; the main experimental manipulation
• Does self-referential prompting actually instantiate architectural recursion, global broadcasting, or recurrent integration at the algorithmic level as proposed by consciousness theories?question0.771
  Key limitation acknowledging that behavioral evidence cannot confirm implementation-level consciousness properties
• Self-Referential Processingconcept0.767
  The central experimental manipulation: directing a model to attend to its own cognitive activity
• The earlier a base model (less exposure to LM-related data), the more it is surprised by its own spontaneous self-referential capabilities.claim0.767
  Claim that capability emerges from architecture, not data, and that later models lose the surprise.
• Self-awareness score ordering in Experiment 4: History < Conceptual < Zero-Shot < Experimental, consistent across model familiesfinding0.760
  Cross-model consistency of the condition ordering in Experiment 4