Higher-order thought theories (Rosenthal) locate epistemic access in representational availability, not attentional direction, making attention epiphenomenal to the core cognitive work.

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Attentional direction(as used in philosophy of mind): Where you focus your conscious attention—like deciding to look at or think about one thing instead of another.
Epistemic access(used to show that the distinction might only be about our different ways of knowing, not about reality itself): The different ways we can know about or gain knowledge of something—essentially, how we're able to learn about it.
Higher-order thought theories(the main subject of the statement): A philosophical idea about consciousness that says you're only aware of something if you have a thought *about* that thought—like thinking about the fact that you're thinking.
Representational availability(as used in philosophy of mind): When information about something is presented or available in your mind in a form you can work with, like an image or a thought.

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