In APS, significance refers to the organism-relative importance of conditions, events, relationships, or possibilities. Something is significant when it has consequences for the viability, functioning, development, or future prospects of an agent.
Significance should not be confused with conscious meaning. Living systems can distinguish what matters long before they possess conscious awareness, reflective thought, or symbolic understanding. A bacterium moving toward nutrients, a plant responding to changing light conditions, or an animal avoiding danger all exhibit sensitivity to significance without necessarily exhibiting conscious meaning.
Significance therefore represents a biological achievement rather than a conscious one. It emerges through biological evaluation, which distinguishes conditions according to their consequences for an organism. Conscious meaning, where it exists, builds upon this more fundamental capacity.
In APS, significance explains how the world becomes organised around what matters to an agent. It does not imply that the agent is consciously aware of that significance.