The association aims to advance research about the nature, function, and underlying mechanisms of consciousness.

The original founding members included Bernard Baars, William Banks, George Buckner, David Chalmers, Stanley Klein, Bruce Mangan, Thomas Metzinger, David Rosenthal, and Patrick Wilken.

Since 1994, the organization has put on eleven meetings and assumed many other activities, including an e-print archive and an online journal Psyche.

Since 1997, the ASSC has organized annual conferences to promote interaction and spread knowledge of scientific and philosophical advances in the field of consciousness research.

In addition to organizing annual meetings, the association promotes the academic study of consciousness in a number of other ways: