Experience State Research Articles

Skepticism, Deflation, and the Rediscovery of the Self

Because the connection between our internal experiential states and their external causes is contingent, we can imagine keeping the former fixed while letting the latter vary. (The interface is simply the boundary between what is internal and what is external to the subject.) Thus we could have the same internal states, even though the external states were radically different and, indeed, even if the external states did not exist. Since the connection is causal, an inference from the internal to the external cannot be justified on conceptual grounds. And any non-concep

Generalizing Qualia Inversion

Philosophers who advocate the possibility of spectrum inversionoften conclude that the qualitative content of experiential states pose aserious problem for functionalism. I argue that in order for the inversion hypothesis to supportthis conclusion one needs to show that it generalizes to all species of qualia. By examiningfeatures of touch, taste, and olfactory sensations, I show there is good reason to resistthis generalization, in which case appeals to the possibility of spectral inversion areconsiderably less effective than they may initially appear

Automatization and information processing capacity in schizophrenia

In recent years there has been an expansion of scientific work on consciousness. However, there is an increasing necessity to integrate evolutionary and interdisciplinary perspectives and to bring affective feelings more centrally into the overall discussion. Pursuant especially to the theorizing of Endel Tulving (1985, 2004, 2005), Panksepp (1998a, 2003, 2005) and Vandekerckhove (2009) we will look at the phenomena starting with primary-process consciousness, namely the rudimentary state of autonomic awareness or unknowing (anoetic) consciousness, with a fundamental form of first-person ‘self-experience’ which relies on affective experiential states and raw sensory and perceptual mental existences, to higher forms of knowing (noetic and autonoetic) and self-aware consciousness. Since current scientific approaches are most concerned with the understanding of higher declarative states of consciousness, we will focus on these vastly underestimated primary forms of consciousness which may be foundational for all forms of higher ‘knowing consciousness’.

Is the Human Amygdala Critical for the Subjective Experience of Emotion? Evidence of Intact Dispositional Affect in Patients with Amygdala Lesions

It is thought that the human amygdala is a critical component of the neural substrates of emotional experience, involved particularly in the generation of fear, anxiety, and general negative affectivity. Although many neuroimaging studies demonstrate findings consistent this notion, little evidence of altered emotional experience following amygdala damage has been gathered in humans. In a preliminary test of the amygdala's role in phenomenal affective states, we assessed the extent of experienced positive and negative affective states in patients with amygdala damage and age-, sex-, and education-matched controls. To assess chronic changes in experienced affect, all groups were administered the Positive and Negative Affect Schedules (PANAS, Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988). In the first study, we examined the effects of amygdala lesions on affective traits in 10 left and 10 right amygdala-damaged patients, 1 patient with bilateral amygdala damage (SP), and 20 control subjects. Subjects were asked to indicate the typicality of different experiential states of positive (e.g., inspired, excited) and negative (e.g., afraid, nervous) valence. In a second study, we examined more closely the effects of bilateral amygdala damage on the day-to-day generation of affective states by administering the PANAS daily for a 30-day period to patient SP and age-, sex-, and education-matched controls. In both experiments, no differences in the magnitude and frequency of self-reported positive or negative affect were found between control subjects and patients with amygdala damage. Moreover, principal components analyses of the covariation among different affects (across individuals in Study 1 and within individuals across days in Study 2) confirmed a two-factor (positive vs. negative) description of experienced affect in controls. A highly similar two-factor description of experienced affect was found in patients with amygdala lesions. This suggests that the underlying structure of affective states was intact following amygdala damage. It is concluded that the human amygdala may be recruited during phenomenal affective states in the intact brain, but is not necessary for the production of these states.

Understanding Biology in Religious Experience: The Biogenetic Structuralist Approach of Eugene d’Aquili and Andrew Newberg

What are the biological bases of religious experience? Are there biological constraints upon or determinants of religious narratives and practices? How does understanding the biology of religious experience inform the ongoing reconstruction of religious rituals and myths? In The Mystical Mind, Eugene d’Aquili and Andrew Newberg address these central questions and others from a distinct perspective called biogenetic structuralism. They propose a model of how brain activity gives rise to mystical experiential states, examine how neurobiological responses to rhythmic behavior form religious ritual, and point toward the development of a megatheology, or a theological system appealing to the widest scope of religious world‐views. This paper is a critical review of d’Aquili and Newberg's exciting work.

Happiness and Pleasure1

This paper argues against hedonistic theories of happiness. First, hedonism is too inclusive: many pleasures cannot plausibly be construed as constitutive of happiness. Second, any credible theory must count either attitudes of life satisfaction, affective states such as mood, or both as constituents of happiness; yet neither sort of state reduces to pleasure. Hedonism errs in its attempt to reduce happiness, which is at least partly dispositional, to purely episodic experiential states. the dispositionality of happiness also undermines weakened nonreductive forms of hedonism, as some happiness‐constitutive states are not pleasures in any sense. Moreover, these states can apparently fail to exhibit the usual hedonic properties; sadness, for instance, can sometimes be pleasant. Finally, the nonhedonistic accounts are adequate if not superior on grounds of practical and theoretical utility, quite apart from their superior conformity to the folk notion of happiness.“And does his philosophy make you happy?”“I have never searched for happiness. Who wants happiness?I have searched for pleasure.”Oscar Wilde, the Picture of Dorian Gray (p. 209)

Choral Singing, Performance Perception, and Immune System Changes in Salivary Immunoglobulin A and Cortisol

In a naturalistic pre-post design, samples of saliva were collected from the members of a professional chorale during an early rehearsal (n = 31), a late rehearsal (n = 34) and a public performance (n = 32) of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. As measures of immune system response, mean levels of secretory immunoglobulin A increased significantly, as a proportion of whole protein, 150% during rehearsals and 240% during the performance. Cortisol concentrations decreased significantly an average of 30% during rehearsals and increased 37% during performance. As measured through performance perception rating scales, a group of emotions and other experiential states that singers associated with professional singing were highly predictive of changes in level of secretory immunoglobulin A during the performance condition, but the results for the rehearsal conditions were not significant. The best multiple regression model for performance level of immunoglobulin A (p < .0015) included seven emotional, cognitive, and evaluative variables generally associated with choral singing, including levels of mood before and during singing, stress, relaxation, feeling "high," detachment/engagement, and specific satisfaction with the immediate performance.

Subjective Experience: Its Conceptual Status, Method of Investigation, and Psychological Significance

The aim of this article is to clarify the concept of subjective experience and, by illustrating some of the ways in which it has been successfully investigated, to encourage further research on specific experiential states and processes. Clarification has been undertaken by discussing the conceptual status of subjective experience, the methods available for its investigation, and its broader psychological significance.

Ambient odors associated to failure influence cognitive performance in children.

We investigated whether odors can become conditioned to emotionally salient experiences such that when later encountered they influence performance consistent with a previously associated event. To test this hypothesis, 5-year-olds were given the experience of failure/frustration on a cognitive maze in a room scented with fragrance and later given another cognitively challenging test in a different room scented with either the same odor, a different odor, or no odor. Results revealed that subjects who performed the test in the presence of the same odor as the maze task did significantly worse than subjects in any other group. Performance in the different odor and the no odor groups were equivalent. Facial expressions and verbal remarks made during the maze task indicated a predominant display of negative affect. These findings show that odors can become conditioned to experiential states and when later encountered have directional influences on behavior.

When Recollective Experiences Matter: Subjective Ease of Retrieval and Stereotyping

Based on the logic that stereotypes are accessible among people who use them often, the authors suspected that low-prejudice participants would experience difficulty when asked to bring a large amount of stereotypic information to mind. This experienced difficulty was expected to decrease the stereotypicality of subsequent judgments. In the experiment, participants who differed in their level of prejudice (i.e., low, intermediate, high) toward women judged a target (i.e., female secretary) after having generated either three or eight traits on which men and women were believed to differ. As predicted, ease of retrieval influenced the extent to which the target was stereotyped, but only for low-prejudice participants. That is, these individuals judged the target more stereotypically when they had previously generated three traits rather than eight traits. Ease of retrieval effects were not observed among other participants. The authors consider how experiential states may inform their understanding of stereotyping.

The Ambiguity of the -te iru form in Japanese

This article presents a formal semantic account of the ambiguity associated with the -te iru construction in Japanese. This construction is known to receive at least two distinct interpretations: on-going process interpretations analogous to the English progressive and so-called resultative interpretations. The latter are sub-classified by some researchers into concrete result state readings and experiential state readings. Based upon the distributional properties of adverbials, we suggest that progressive interpretations of DURATIVE VERBS and concrete result state interpretations of INTANTANEOUS VERBS should be grouped together, as opposed to experiential readings of DURATIVE or INTANTANEOUS VERBS. To account for the distinction between these two types of interpretation, the proposed system analyzes the -te iru form into the morpheme -te, which is claimed to bear a perfect feature, and the aspectual auxiliary iru. Our proposal for the aspectual auxiliary iru is an extension of Landman's (1992) proposal and offers a unified account of the multiple interpretations of -te iru on the basis of a new analysis of INTANTANEOUS VERBS.

The scientific validity of subjective concepts in models of animal welfare

This paper takes a closer look at the subjectivity/objectivity relationship, as it plays a role in the science of animal welfare. It argues that subjective, experiential states in animals such as well-being and suffering are, contrary to what is often assumed, open to empirical observation and scientific assessment. The presumably purely private, inaccessible nature of such states is not an inherent property of these states, but derives from their misguided conception as ‘causal objects’ in mechanistic models of behaviour. This inevitably endows subjective experience with a ‘hidden’ status. However, subjective experience should be approached on its own conceptual grounds, i.e. as a perspective, in terms of ‘what-it-is-like-to-be’ a particular individual animal. Neither behaviour nor subjective experience then can be regarded as causal objects; they form an integrated, dynamic, expressive whole. The animal is perceived as an agent, whose perspective on a given situation is manifest in the way in which it interacts with and pays attention to that situation. In this framework, concepts of subjective experience such as enthusiasm, timidity, fear or contentedness, may be defined as categories of ‘attentional style’. Testing the scientific validity and reliability of such categories requires development of a qualitative methodology for the measurement of behaviour. Starting-points for such a method are put forward for discussion.

Interactive Effects of Resource Abundance and State of Adults on Residence of Apple Maggot (Diptera: Tephritidae) Flies in Host Tree Patches

In open-field patches of five potted host trees containing varying amounts of proteinaceous food and host hawthorn fruit, we investigated the comparative influence of varying fly physiological and experiential states on the location and duration of residence of 18-d-old released apple maggot, Rhagoletis pomonella (Walsh), females. Several patterns of fly response were consistent with our preexperimental expectation. Thus, duration of residence was greater in patches where proteinaceous food and host fruit were present on all trees than in patches where either or both resources were absent from one or more trees, largely irrespective of fly physiological or experiential state. Flies that had no access to protein up to day of release (low egg load flies) were sighted in greater numbers on proteinaceous food than were flies that had continuous access to protein up to day of release (high egg load flies), whereas the reverse was true for flies sighted on host fruit. Flies that had partial access to protein up to day of release (intermediate egg load flies) were sighted in intermediate numbers on proteinaceous food and fruit. Flies that had continuous access to protein up to day of release were observed in greatest numbers on fruit if they received brief experience with fruit (as opposed to water or proteinaceous food) just before release. Presence on fruit of flies that had partial access to protein up to day of release was unaffected by type of brief experience just before release. Some patterns of fly response were not consistent with our preexperimental expectation. Thus, flies that had no or partial access to protein up to day of release were observed in fewer numbers (not greater or equal numbers, respectively) on proteinaceous food if they had brief experience with proteinaceous food just before release compared with brief experience with water or fruit. Flies that had no access to protein up to day of release and received brief experience with proteinaceous food just before release were found on tree foliage and in total in greater numbers (not equal numbers) than flies that had continuous access to protein up to day of release and received brief experience with fruit just before release. These and other findings are discussed in relation to previous knowledge of the resource foraging behavior of tephritid flies and in relation to improvement of behavioral methods of managing R. pomonella flies in commercial apple orchards.

Gender variations in the weekly rhythms of daily behaviour and experiences

Abstract Data used in this article were collected from 182 adults working for major blue‐collar and white‐collar employers in the Kitchener‐Waterloo area (Ontario, Canada) as part of the 1985 Experience Sampling Survey. This article discusses differences in daily lives and accompanying moods of employed population, as a function of gender and calendar week. The article addresses the following questions: (a)How does the weekly rhythm of daily and leisure activities vary by gender? (b) How do men's and women's motivations for engaging in daily activities vary across the week? (c) Do men's and women's experiential states vary across the week differently ? (d) How do the experiential states of men and women differ within the context of different daily activities? (e) How do the behavioral and experiential profiles of individual calendar days vary by gender?

Behavioral responses of Ceratitis capitata flies to bait spray droplets and natural food

AbstractIn studies carried out on field‐caged non‐fruiting host trees, we examined effects of environmental and adult physiological and experiential state factors on responses of released Mediterranean fruit flies, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann), to droplets of proteinaceous bait (PIB‐7) with or without 20% insecticide (malathion). We confirmed that fresh PIB‐7 is both attractive and phagostimulatory to proteindeprived medflies and found that presence of 20% malathion ultra low volume concentrate (ULVC) in PIB‐7 droplets does not significantly repel medflies from approaching droplets but does significantly deter feeding on them. A single relatively fresh deposit of bird feces, an important source of protein for medflies in natural environments, attracted several times more laboratory‐cultured and wild medflies than 20 droplets of 80% PIB‐7/20% malathion ULVC (about the average number of droplets per m2of plant canopy in aerial bait spray programs). Attraction to protein was significantly greater among wild medflies deprived of protein continuously from eclosion than among wild medflies that had recent (within 3 days) or continuous access to protein. Attraction to protein increased significantly with increasing age (2, 7 and 12 days) of protein‐deprived wild medflies. But we found no significant positive impact of recent brief experience of wild medflies with protein on degree of subsequent attraction to protein. In final experiments that mimicked the size, density and distribution of bait spray droplets on tree foliage typical for an aerial medfly control program, very few (4%) or no released protein‐deprived wild medflies found a bait droplet within the 15 min test period even though most found a single deposit of bird feces. We conclude that the effectiveness of aerial bait sprays against medflies might be enhanced substantially (and the proportion of infested area treated with bait spray reduced considerably) by (1) including synthetic equivalents of attractive components of bird feces in the spray mixture, and (2) adjusting spatial and temporal patterns of bait spray applications according to estimates of the composition and abundance of natural medfly food and the age structure of medfly adult populations in infested regions.

To Be Fully There: Psychological Presence at Work

This article develops the concept of psychological presence to describe the experiential state enabling organization members to draw deeply on their personal selves in role performances, i.e., express thoughts and feelings, question assumptions, innovate. The dimensions of psychological presence are described along with relevant organizational and individual factors. The concept's implications for theory and research about the person-role relationship are described.

Effect of physiological and experiential state ofBactrocera tryoni flies on intra-tree foraging behavior for food (bacteria) and host fruit.

Using caged host trees on which we manipulated food and oviposition sites, we investigated the foraging behavior of individually-releasedBactrocera tryoni (Diptera: Tephritidae) females in relation to state of fly hunger for protein, presence or absence of bacteria as a source of protein, degree of prior experience with host fruit, and quality of host fruit for oviposition. One aim was to evaluate whether it is immature or matureB. tryoni females that are responsible for initially inoculating host fruit surfaces with "fruit-fly-type" bacteria, the odor of which is known to attractB. tryoni females. We found that 3-week-old immature females provided with sucrose but deprived of protein from eclosion had a much greater propensity than 3-week-old protein-fed mature females to visit vials containing fruit-fly-type bacteria, irrespective of whether vials were associated with adjacent host fruit or not. In the absence of associated bacteria in vials, immature females had a much lower propensity than mature females to visit host fruit. In the presence of bacteria in vials, however, propensity of immature and mature females to visit fruit was about equal. Mature (but not immature) females were more inclined to visit fruit that ranked higher for oviposition (nectarines) than fruit that ranked lower (sweet oranges). Mature females that attempted oviposition during a single 3-min exposure period to a nectarine prior to release were much more likely to find a nectarine than were mature females naive to fruit or immature females with or without prior contact with fruit. Exposure to a nectarine before release did not affect the propensity of either mature or immature females to alight on an odorless visual model of a nectarine, however. As judged by numbers of leaves visited, protein-deprived immature females were more active than protein-fed mature females, irrespective of the sorts of resources on a tree. Together, our findings lead us to conclude that (1) the firstB. tryoni females to arrive on the fruit of a host tree and therefore inoculate the fruit with fruit-fly-type bacteria are unlikely to be sexually immature, but to be mature as a result of having earlier acquired protein elsewhere, (2) the odor of colonies of fruit-fly-type bacteria when associated with host fruit will attract protein-hungry but not protein-fed females, and (3) the odor of the fruit itself will attract mature females (especially experienced ones) but not immature females. These findings illustrate the value of considering jointly the state of a resource patch together with the physiological and experiential state of the individual when investigating the foraging behavior of an insect.

Effects of nitrous oxide on global and regional cortical blood flow.

We conducted regional cortical blood flow studies using the xenon-133 clearance technique on 12 volunteers during the administration of 25% and 50% N2O and during baseline conditions (breathing room air or 100% O2). Global cortical blood flow was very highly significantly increased above baseline measures in all subjects by 50% N2O (mean increase 37% above 100% O2 condition). A smaller but still significant increase was observed with 25% N2O. Analysis of regional cortical blood flow revealed heterogeneity in the pattern of changes; that is, the baseline pattern was altered by the inhalation of N2O, most often resulting in an accentuation of relative frontal blood flow. The anterior-posterior gradient in N2O-induced blood flow changes differs from that observed with simple vasodilatory agents, such as CO2, with which the increase is purely systemic and the baseline pattern is preserved. This indicates that N2O has differential effects on cerebral metabolism that may well reflect the typical alterations in experiential state reported by subjects.

Towards a taxonomy of personality descriptors in German: A psycho‐lexical study

We present two studies aimed at developing a comprehensive taxonomy of German personality‐descriptive terms. In the first study, all personality‐descriptive adjectives (e.g. cynical), type nouns (e.g. cynic), and attribute nouns (e.g. cynicism) were extracted from a German dictionary. We found that almost half of all German adjectives were potentially personality‐relevant, as contrasted with only 8% of the nouns. Moreover, there were more attribute nouns than type nouns, the latter appearing more slangy, metaphorical, concrete, and rich in imagery (e.g. Big‐mouth, Wooden‐head). In the second study, we discuss basic conceptual distinctions among units ofpersonality description, develop a category system basedon a prototype conception, and present a classification of 5092 adjectives into 13 categories. The classifications were generalizable across both judges and a two‐year time interval, and agreed with a priori expert classifications. An analysis of the prototypical category cores suggested that Evaluations, Temperament and character traits, and Experiential states were represented most extensively in German, whereas Social effects, Roles and relationships, and Appearance were rather infrequent. These findings, though generally similar, differ from Norman's (1967) American taxonomy in the number of Evaluative terms and of Activity descriptors. Our studies provide comprehensive and representative lists of German words for personality traits, moods and emotions, social roles, effects, evaluations, and physical appearance, and may serve as the basis for taxonomies, dimensional analyses, and assessment instruments. We emphasize the need to standardize procedures in taxonomic research and outline suggestions for future studies of other languages.

Ibn 'Arabi's "Esotericism": The Problem of Spiritual Authority

for their books, but rather through oral sayings and teachings handed down trough many generations of disciples. And even the much later (and often apologetic) compilations of the classical Sufi literature (Makki, Kalfbidhi, Qushayri, Sulami, etc.) are unanimous in their insistence that the knowledge underlying the mystical path is a science of experiential states, of forms of awareness that can only be attained through the combination of divine grace, individual practice and intention, and suhba, the companionship and guidance of a true master-not through their reflection in words, concepts and formal teachings. Hence in the case of Ibn 'Arabi the contrast is all the more striking between his monumental, virtually superhuman literary production(1) (with the vast culture and learning it presupposes) and the lives of many of