Introspective Reports Research Articles

Dynamics of spontaneous thoughts: Exploration, attentional profile and the segmentation of the stream of thoughts

For a long time, clinical knowledge and first-person reports have pointed to individual differences in the dynamics of spontaneous thoughts, in particular in the extreme case of psychiatric conditions (e.g. racing thoughts in Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder, ADHD; rumination in depression). We used a novel procedure to investigate this individual variability by combining verbal fluency tasks and introspective reports of thought content. Our goal was twofold. First, we tested the hypothesis that a greater segmentation of the stream of thoughts would be associated with trait inattention, in line with subjective reports of ADHD patients. Second, we tested whether the segmentation of the stream of thoughts increased with an increased tendency for exploratory behavior, following recent theoretical claims on the mechanisms underpinning the generation of spontaneous thoughts. Our results support both hypotheses, shedding light on the factors contributing to the individual variability in the dynamics of the stream of thought.

Translating in the Dark: Introspective Insights into the Work of the Blind and Low Vision Translators

This study aims at exploring and describing translation process (TP) as carried out by blind and low vision translators (BLVTs) compared to peer sighted translators (PSTs). The peculiarity of TP by the visually impaired has not been examined before in translation studies. For this end, we seek to find evidence for difference in processing texts between BLVTs and PSTs, impact of blindness and low vision on performing the task, and how such knowledge can help in structuring process-oriented model of translation assessment. Three hypotheses are proposed: first, there is a difference in performing the task in mainly three aspects; reciprocity, anxiety and speed between the visually impaired and the sighted translators; second, BLVTs tend to be more verbose in their translation; and third, a process-oriented model of translation along product-oriented model assessment can be a more impartial mechanism to assess performance of translation trainees as well as the final product. Introspective reports (2242 minutes of think-aloud audio recordings) are used to collect data from semi-professional translators (15 BLVTs and 10 PSTs). Triangulation is also used in form of pre-reports about the task and post-reports and interviews with the participants. The data are codified using multi-level bookmarking for recordings. The results show that BLVTs are slower, more anxious, and uncertain, more verbose, and self-reflective compared to PSTs. Further, BLVTs and PSTs have suffered from Hawthorne effect and have been optimistic about time of completion. Any contribution into this field can be useful in many ways, and future research can build on the findings of this study to provide better support to BLVTs in their work.

How do differences in native language affect out-of-body experiences?

Out-of-body experiences are scientifically inducible cognitive phenomena attracting global attention due to their application in the Metaverse and medical care. Despite previous studies suggesting that one's native language influences one's cognition, the out-of-body experiences of humans with different native languages have not been investigated separately. This study replicated an experiment from a 2007 study to investigate whether differences in native language affect the ability to have scientifically induced out-of-body experiences. A total of 19 age-matched native English and Japanese speakers completed the experiment in two blocks. Thereafter, their experiences were evaluated using questionnaires, and their responses were compared. Importantly, no significant differences between the English and Japanese native-speaker conditions were found. The results showed that out-of-body experiences were induced similarly in both groups, suggesting that people can have out-of-body experiences as a response to similar stimuli, regardless of their native language. However, differences in participants' introspective reports suggested that their experiences may differ qualitatively, possibly, due to the different linguistic backgrounds. The elucidation of the mechanisms of science-assisted out-of-body experiences that consider different cultural and cognitive characteristics, such as native language, could lead to the investigation of their applications in the borderless Metaverse and medicine.

Introspection, reflection, qualia, & consciousness: Making sense of an 80-hour psychotherapy internship

The following is an introspective report that elaborates on lessons I learned as a trainee psychotherapist during an 80-hour internship at one of Sri Lanka’s state-run hospitals. I have carefully analyzed thoughts, feelings, and emotions associated with three patient cases, and interpreted key learnings via Gibbs reflective cycle. The lessons learned portray a self-realization of a variety of my strengths and weaknesses akin to the practice of psychotherapy. Based on the nature of the content learned, I have identified some of the key areas of professional development that undergird career success. Similarly, making sense of my internal state during these 80 hours through reflective practice displays the mastery of a critical skill for improved training outcomes. This report further highlights the need for more subjective introspective reports from contemporary professionals to establish discourse on consciousness to promote the consideration of subjective accounts of professionals as foundational evidence for more intuitive, logical, and rigorous endeavors of scientific inquiry.

Is seeing believing?

Abstract This study compares the effects of visual and oral corrective feedback (CF) on L2 pronunciation development. While many studies have investigated the effects of oral CF for various types of L2 learner productions (Li, 2010; Mackey & Goo, 2007), research in visual biofeedback is still developing (Antolík et al., 2019; Gick, et al., 2008). In this study, 21 Japanese learners of English were divided into two groups: an oral CF group and a visual (ultrasound) CF group where participants received either oral or visual feedback on task-essential pronunciations of English /l/ and /r/ after induced communication breakdowns in task-based interactions. Development, determined by accuracy ratings of /l/ and /r/ productions and comprehensibly ratings of phrases from reading passages by naïve raters, was examined pre and post participation in task-based interactions. Introspective reports in the form of stimulated recall interviews assessed learners’ noticing of visual and oral CF and provided qualitative evaluations of the utility of ultrasound imaging for improving pronunciation. Findings uncovered gains for the group who received biofeedback using ultrasound on a story reading task, but not a word list task, when compared with learners who only received oral CF. The training was positively received by participants with those in the ultrasound group finding use of the ultrasound motivating and useful for their production of /r/ and /l/.

Mental measurement and the introspective privilege

AbstractAccording to a long-standing belief, introspection provides privileged access to the mind, while objective methods, which we denote as “extrospection”, suffer from basic epistemic deficits. Here we will argue that neither an introspective privilege exists nor does extrospection suffer from such deficits.We will focus on two entailments of an introspective privilege: first, such a privilege would require that introspective evidence prevails in cases of conflict with extrospective information. However, we will show that this is not the case: extrospective claims can prevail in cases of conflict. These conflicts are resolved by an inference to the explanation that best accounts for the available evidence. This explanation may speak in favor of extrospection.Second, given an introspective privilege, the development of extrospective measurement techniques should be restricted by the accuracy of introspective reports. We will argue that this problem is part of a more general issue that comes up with the establishment of measurement in the natural sciences. We will identify three strategies that have proven successful in dealing with the problem in the natural sciences. It will turn out that all these strategies are available for extrospective measurement as well. Consequently, the insufficiencies of introspective reports do not impose a limit on the accuracy of extrospective measurement methods.We conclude that neither an introspective privilege nor basic extrospective deficits exist. This does not mean that extrospection will ever replace introspection. Rather, both approaches provide independent and indispensable forms of epistemic access to the mind.

(Non)-experiencing the intention to move: On the comparisons between the Readiness Potential onset and Libet's W-time

A seminal study by Libet et al. (1983) provided a popular approach to compare the introspective timing of movement execution (the M-time) and the intention to move (the W-time) with respect to the onset of the readiness potential (RP). The difference between the W-time and the RP onsets contributed significantly to the current free-will discussion, insofar as it has been repeatedly shown that the RP onset unequivocally precedes the W-time. However, the interpretations of Libet's paradigm continuously attract criticism, questioning the use of both the W-time and the RP onset as indicators of motor intention. In the current study, we further probe whether the W-time is rather an intention-unrelated product of the participant's inference than an unambiguous temporal marker of the intention to move.Using behavioral reports and concurrent multichannel EEG, we investigated the relationship between the W-time and M-time introspective reports in two groups of participants who started an experiment with a series of different reports. Congruently with previous studies, we have shown that the W-time is affected by the experimental procedures: participants who had prior experience reporting the M-time provided significantly earlier W-time. However, contrary to previous papers, we revealed that even naive participants do introspectively differentiate the W-time and the M-time, which suggests that the W-time might actually reflect the intention to move, at least to some extent. We, therefore, suggest that training-based modulation of the W-time values may explain this finding. Moreover, we further confirm the absence of a direct link between the RP onset and the W-time by showing no covariation between them in both experimental groups. In turn, our findings question the overall interpretation of the comparison between these two time points. Overall, our study further emphasizes the ambiguity of Libet's paradigm, and suggests that the relatedness of both the RP and the W-time to the movement initiation processes should not be assumed a priori.

PTSD malingering detection in damage claim cases: Diagnostic accuracy in cases of personal injury as a result of motor vehicle accidents

This study aimed to assess the accuracy of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnoses made by mental health experts in people reporting post-traumatic stress symptoms related to traffic accidents. Data were collected from sixty participants: 30 with possible traumatic experiences and 30 who had never experienced this or other types of traumatic events. Six professional diagnosticians examined the participants with Structured Clinical Interview for the Study of Axis I Disorders (SCID-I for DSM-IV-TR) in conditions similar to those typical of judicial cases related to traffic accident damage claims. There was no significant difference in the number of PTSD diagnoses between malingerers and non-malingerers. Some PTSD symptoms were more frequently recognized in malingerers. This study demonstrates that even professional diagnosticians with clinical and jurisprudence experience have significant difficulty identifying PTSD malingering. This difficulty can be linked to the limitations of diagnoses based on introspective reports.

МЕТОДОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ ФУНКЦИИ ИСТОРИИ ПСИХОЛОГИИ В СОВРЕМЕННОЙ НАУКЕ

The article discusses the role of the history of psychology in the search for adequate solutions to the methodological problems of psychological science. The most recent studies of consciousness, which combine a meticulous study of anatomy and physiology of the brain with the help of modern technology and introspective reports of the bearer of consciousness, differ little in their methodological foundations from those of more than a century ago, which were subjected to sound criticism for Cartesian dualism by L.S. Vygotsky and other representatives of cultural-historical activity theory in psychology. L.S. Vygotsky’s distinction between perezhivanie (experience) and scientific knowledge gives grounds to be critical of the assertion of some representatives and supporters of analytic philosophy that it is impossible to have a scientific comprehension of consciousness, which they identify with subjective reality. A comparative historical analysis of psychological ideas of B. Spinoza, A.N. Leontiev, and E.V. Ilyenkov leads to a conclusion that, in constructing his theory of activity, A.N. Leontiev was guided not by the official Soviet version of Marxism («dialectical materialism») but by the provisions of authentic Marxism. The philosophers of E.V. Ilyenkov’s circle fairly viewed Marxism as a continuation and development of Spinozism. On this philosophical basis, A.N. Leontiev’s scientific school created the concept of activity as a peculiar substance, with consciousness (and the psyche in general) being its function. This doctrine, confirmed by numerous empirical studies and the practice of forming consciousness in ontogenesis, is a good alternative to the Cartesian-oriented research on consciousness in modern cognitive sciences, which has reached a methodological dead end. The paper also shows the role of archival research in clarifying the origin and original meaning of terminology used in psychology. For example, the study of transcripts of the 1948 discussions presented in A.N. Leontiev’s book An Essay on the Development of the Psyche reveals that the phrase «the threefold scheme of analysis» originally appeared in the speeches of Leontiev’s opponents, while these terms (later used by Leontiev himself in his book Activity. Consciousness. Personality) only confuse the matter and do not allow one to adequately understand the non-trivial view on activity as a substance of consciousness developed by A.N. Leontiev’s school. In conclusion, the author argues that the special attention of the international scientific community to the historical heritage of the founders of cultural-activity psychology is due to its specific methodology, which makes it a «science of the future» and, in turn, requires a new historical-psychological and theoretical reflection.

The Perceptual Awareness Scale-recent controversies and debates.

Accurate insight into subjective experience is crucial for the science of consciousness. The Perceptual Awareness Scale (PAS) was created in 2004 as a method for obtaining precise introspective reports for participants in research projects, and since then, the scale has become increasingly popular. This does not mean, of course, that no critiques have been voiced. Here, we briefly recapitulate our main thoughts on the intended PAS usage and the findings of the first decade, and we update this with the latest empirical and theoretical developments. We focus specifically on findings with relevance to whether consciousness is gradual or all-or-none phenomenon, to what should be considered conscious/unconscious, and to whether PAS is preferable to alternative measures of awareness. We respond in detail to some recent, selected articles.

Exploring the Pronunciation Awareness Continuum through Self-Reflection in the L2 French Learning Process

Second language (L2) researchers have established that examining learners’ awareness of their own learning process and progress is essential. However, learners exposed to the same input in the classroom may differ in the way that they perform. This difference may be due to the way and depth with which learners process the L2 information. The present study explores self-reflection (i.e., introspective verbal reports) to enhance L2 learning, helping learners develop an awareness of learning as a process. This four-semester-long study investigates whether there is a connection between phonological awareness and self-reflection and explores under which conditions self-reflection could be most beneficial for pronunciation. Sixty learners of French, divided into a Treatment group (with self-reflection) and a Comparison group (without self-reflection), were tracked across semesters. Results on pre/post read-aloud tests surrounding pronunciation lessons—on the vowels /y/-/u/ and the use of liaisons—were contrasted with students’ responses to self-reflection questionnaires to explore their learning process. The study revealed that overall, self-reflection led to better learning outcomes, and that a link between attention and understanding may exist, but when this link is absent, learners using self-reflection may not linearly progress.

Introspection and Belief: Failures of Introspective Belief Formation

Introspection has traditionally been defined as a privileged way of obtaining beliefs about one’s occurrent mental states, and the idea that it is psychologically and epistemically different from non-introspective belief formation processes has been widely defended. At the same time, philosophers and cognitive scientists alike have pointed out the unreliability of introspective reports in consciousness research. In this paper, I will argue that this dissonance in the literature can be explained by differentiating between infallible and informative introspective beliefs. I will argue that the latter are formed similarly to beliefs about the external world, and are therefore susceptible to similar success and failure conditions. Understanding introspection as belief-like will help to locate possible sources of error in regular as well as in pathological cases, carrying relevant implications for the relationship between experience, belief, and delusion.

The neuroethics of agency: the problem of attributing mental states to people with disorders of consciousness

How can we be certain that another creature is a conscious being? One path is to rely on introspective reports we can grasp in communication or observation of their behavior. Another path is to infer mentality and consciousness by means of markers tied to their intentional behavior, that is, agency. In this paper we will argue that even if agency is a marker of consciousness in several normal instances (paradigmatically, for mature and healthy human beings), it is not a good marker in several pathological instances, such as the blindsight case, the vegetative state, the akinetic mutism and the locked-in syndrome. If we are right, this can be of great utility in neuroethics; for those kinds of disorders of consciousness are not, after all, instances of complete absence of consciousness.

People confabulate with high confidence when their decisions are supported by weak internal variables.

People can introspect on their internal state and report the reasons driving their decisions but choice blindness (CB) experiments suggest that this ability can sometimes be a retrospective illusion. Indeed, when presented with deceptive cues, people justify choices they did not make in the first place, suggesting that external cues largely contribute to introspective processes. Yet, it remains unclear what are the respective contributions of external cues and internal decision variables in forming introspective report. Here, using a brain–computer interface, we show that internal variables continue to be monitored but are less impactful than deceptive external cues during CB episodes. Moreover, we show that deceptive cues overturn the classical relationship between confidence and accuracy: introspective failures are associated with higher confidence than genuine introspective reports. We tracked back the origin of these overconfident confabulations by revealing their prominence when internal decision evidence is weak and variable. Thus, introspection is neither a direct reading of internal variables nor a mere retrospective illusion, but rather reflects the integration of internal decision evidence and external cues, with CB being a special instance where internal evidence is inconsistent.

Od tekstu do kontekstu. O praktyce upodmiotowiania w przestrzeniach twórczości naukowej – prolegomena

The article presents the practice of subjectivizing scientific creativity by referring to the role of intuition in the creation process, introspective reports and comments on spatial information processing. One of the main emphases is placed on the interaction between the author’s sense of subjectivity with the idea generated and developed by him, as well as on how the reader senses this interaction. These findings became the basis for adopting assumptions about individual and disciplinary differences in strategy and the intensity of the subjectivization of scientific texts by creators and recipients. The article was prepared in a performative and dialogical formula.

Reactions to second language speech

Abstract This study investigates how Mandarin and Slavic language speakers’ comprehensibility, accentedness, and fluency ratings, as assigned by experienced teacher-raters and novice raters, align with discrete linguistic measures, and raters’ accounts of influences on their scoring. In addition to examining mean ratings in relation to rater experience and speaker first language background, we correlated ratings with segmental, prosodic, and temporal measures. Introspective reports were segmented, coded, enumerated, and submitted to loglinear analysis to elucidate influences on ratings. Results showed that ratings were strongly correlated with prosodic goodness and moderately correlated with segmental errors, implying the importance of both segmentals and prosody in L2 speech ratings. Experienced teacher-raters provided lengthier reports than novice raters, producing more comments for all coded categories where an error was identified except for pausing (a dysfluency marker). This may be because novice raters observed little else about the speech or struggled to pinpoint or articulate other features.

Is Vision for Action Unconscious?

Empirical work and philosophical analysis have led to widespread acceptance that vision for action, served by the cortical dorsal stream, is unconscious. I argue that the empirical argument for this claim is unsound. That argument relies on subjects’ introspective reports. Yet on biological grounds, in light of the theory of primate cortical vision, introspection has no access to dorsal stream mediated visual states. It is wrongly assumed that introspective reports speak to absent phenomenology in the dorsal stream. In light of this, I consider a different conception of consciousness’s relation to agency in terms of access. While theoretical reasons suggest that the inaccessibility of the dorsal stream to conceptual report is evidence that it is unconscious, this position begs important questions about agency and consciousness. I propose a broader notion of access in respect of the guidance of intentional agency as the crucial link connecting agency to consciousness.

Developing Dark Pessimism Towards the Justificatory Role of Introspective Reports

This paper argues for a position of ‘dark pessimism’ towards introspective reports playing a strong justificatory role in consciousness science, based on the application of frameworks and concepts of measurement. I first show that treating introspective reports as measurements fits well within current discussions of the reliability of introspection, and argue that introspective reports must satisfy at least a minimal definition of measurement in order to play a justificatory role in consciousness science. I then show how treating introspective reports as measurements makes it possible to identify the foundational methodological problems that underlie much of the current philosophical and scientific debate about the status of introspective evidence in studying consciousness. I argue that these problems prevent introspective reports from playing a strong justificatory role and resolving long-standing debates in consciousness science, both in contemporary work and in the future.

A Comparison of Word-Recognition Performances on the Auditec and VA Recorded Versions of Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 by Young Listeners with Normal Hearing and by Older Listeners with Sensorineural Hearing Loss Using a Randomized Presentation-Level Paradigm.

The Auditec of St. Louis and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recorded versions of the Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 (NU-6) are in common usage. Data on young adults with normal hearing for pure tones (YNH) demonstrate equal recognition performances on the two versions when the VA version is presented 5 dB higher but similar data on older listeners with sensorineural hearing loss (OHL) are lacking. To compare word-recognition performances on the Auditec and VA versions of NU-6 presented at six presentation levels with YNH and OHL listeners. A quasi-experimental, repeated-measures design was used. Twelve YNH (M = 24.0 years; PTA = 9.9-dB HL) and 36 OHL listeners (M = 71.6 years; PTA = 26.7-dB HL) participated in three, one-hour sessions. Each listener received 100 stimulus words that were randomized by 6 presentation levels for each of two speakers (YNH, -2 to 28-dB SL; OHL, -2 to 38-dB SL). The sessions were limited to 25 practice and 400 experimental words. Digital versions of the 16, 25-word tracks for each session were alternated between speakers. Each of the 48 listeners had higher recognition performances on the Auditec version of NU-6 than on the VA version. The respective overall recognition performances on the Auditec and VA versions were 71.4% and 64.1% (YNH) and 68.7% and 58.2% (OHL). At the highest presentation levels, recognition performances on the two versions differed by only 0.5% (YNH) and 3.3% (OHL). At the 50% correct point, performances on the Auditec version were 3.2 dB (YNH) and 6.1 dB (OHL) better than those on the VA version. The slopes at the 50% points on the mean functions for both speakers were about 4.9%/dB (YNH) and 3.0%/dB (OHL); however, the slopes evaluated from the individual listener data were steeper, 5.2 to 5.3%/dB (YNH) and 3.3 to 3.5%/dB (OHL). When the individual data were transformed from dB SL to dB HL, the differences between the two listener groups were emphasized. The four functions (2 speakers by 2 listener groups) were plotted for each of the 48 participants and each of the 200 words, which revealed the gamut of relations among the datasets. Examination of the data for each speaker across test sessions, in the traditional 50-word lists, and in the typically used 25-word lists of Randomization A revealed no differences of clinical concern. Finally, introspective reports from the listeners revealed that 91.7% and 83.3% of the YNH and OHL listeners, respectively, thought the Auditec speaker was easier to understand than the VA speaker. Recognition performances on each participant and on each word are presented.

Libet's experiment: A complex replication.

Libet's experiment is an influential classical study, which does not stop provoking heated debates. However, a full-scale replication has not been carried out to this day. Libet-style studies have usually focused on isolated ideas and concepts and never on the whole experiment in all its complexity. This paper presents detailed methodological description and results of a complex replication study. The methodology follows Libet's directions closely in most cases; when it does not, the differences are described and elaborated. The results replicate Libet's key findings, but substantial differences were found in some of the results' categories, such as the introspective reports or the number of readiness-potentials found. The discussion also addresses some current problems pertaining the methodology of the Libet-style experiments and provides some recommendations based on a detailed process evaluation.