Mental action and emotion – What happens in the mind when the stimulus changes but not the perceptual intention

Abstract

While mainstream psychology and cognitive science still rely on the measurement of external behavioural data, systematic recording and analysis of qualitative and process-related first-person data is largely missing. However, it is possible to overcome these limitations leading to an incomplete picture by adapting conventional methodological criteria to first-person research. This study gives an example of this, referring to perceptual reversals and exploring the phenomenal and processual qualities of mental action and emotion as they occur during the task of holding a particular percept while the stimulus changes. The results are in support of a four-phase dynamics of voluntary mental action and indicate a processual correlation of mental action and concomitant emotional experience. This is discussed in the context of common psychological constructs such as self-control and self-efficacy, other introspective research results, the bottom-up/top-down debate and in view of neurophysiological studies in this field.