Developing a short-term phenomenological training program: A report of methodological lessons

Miyahara, Katsunori; Niikawa, Takuya; Hamada, Hiro Taiyo; Nishida, Shogo

doi:10.1016/j.newideapsych.2020.100780

Cited by 17 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Thus, it is essential for the validity of studies attempting to provide an in-depth account of first-person data to use participants who are skilled and trained in observing and reporting on their experience (cf. Miyahara et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Individuals Experience During Visuo-Spatial Working Memory Task Performance: An Exploratory Phenomenological Study

et al. 2022

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In experimental cognitive psychology, objects of inquiry are typically operationalized with psychological tasks. When interpreting results from such tasks, we focus primarily on behavioral measures such as reaction times and accuracy rather than experiences – i.e., phenomenology – associated with the task, and posit that the tasks elicit the desired cognitive phenomenon. Evaluating whether the tasks indeed elicit the desired phenomenon can be facilitated by understanding the experience during task performance. In this paper we explore the breadth of experiences that are elicited by and accompany task performance using in-depth phenomenological and qualitative methodology to gather subjective reports during the performance of a visuo-spatial change detection task. Thirty-one participants (18 females) were asked to remember either colors, orientations or positions of the presented stimuli and recall them after a short delay. Qualitative reports revealed rich experiential landscapes associated with the task-performance, suggesting a distinction between two broad classes of experience: phenomena at the front of consciousness and background feelings. The former includes cognitive strategies and aspects of metacognition, whereas the latter include more difficult-to-detect aspects of experience that comprise the overall sense of experience (e.g., bodily feelings, emotional atmosphere, mood). We focus primarily on the background feelings, since strategies of task-performance to a large extent map onto previously identified cognitive processes and discuss the methodological implications of our findings.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Individuals Experience During Visuo-Spatial Working Memory Task Performance: An Exploratory Phenomenological Study

et al. 2022

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“…As far as we are aware, few first‐person training programs have explicitly been put to the test to see whether they improve the performance of their participants. In a recent article on a short‐term phenomenological training program, the results were inconclusive: it seems to be helpful for some persons, but not for others (Miyahara, 2020). Still, it should be clear that attention and memory can be guided and cultivated so as to improve the quality of the experiential reports.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First‐person access to decision‐making using micro‐phenomenological self‐inquiry

Sparby

Lumma

Edelhäuser

et al. 2021

Scandinavian J Psychology

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Micro‐phenomenology is a method for improving first‐person reports of experience. Usually, micro‐phenomenology is conducted using a second‐person interviewer who guides someone investigating an experience. This has the advantage that the interviews can be done with untrained subjects. However, it is possible to perform micro‐phenomenological self‐inquiry, a form of self‐interview technique, without a second‐person interviewer. This has several advantages, such as being more time and cost effective. Questionable, however, is the possibility for untrained subjects to enquire into their own experience using micro‐phenomenology. The present study aims to test the reliability of micro‐phenomenological self‐inquiry with untrained subjects using a guiding document. We replicated an experimental design that has previously been employed to test whether micro‐phenomenology increases the reliability of reports. The experiment did not replicate. Reasons for this may be: (1) a methodological weakness of the previous study; (2) that the way the self‐inquiry format employed as part of the present study was ineffective; or (3) that micro‐phenomenological self‐inquiry requires training. These specific possibilities and the idea of testing the reliability of micro‐phenomenological reports in general are discussed. We conclude that the self‐inquiry format is not sufficient for conducing micro‐phenomenological studies and that training is required.

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“…Some training programs to enhance the skills of empathy have been developed ( Lam et al, 2011 ; Englander, 2014 ). Likewise, there is a research project to design a training program to enhance the skills of introspection in general ( Miyahara et al, 2020 ). There are also many attempts to invent an interview-based method to know better what others consciously experience ( Petitmengin, 2006 ; Langdridge, 2007 ; Giorgi, 2009 ; Petitmengin et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: The List Of Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Map of Consciousness Studies: Questions and Approaches

Niikawa

2020

Front. Psychol.

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This article aims to present a map of consciousness studies, which consists of a list of fundamental questions about consciousness and existing approaches to them. The question list includes five fundamental categories: Definitional, Phenomenological, Epistemological, Ontological, and Axiological. Each fundamental category is divided into more determinate questions. Existing approaches to each question are also classified into a few groups, presenting principal researchers who take each kind of approach. In the final section, I demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed map of consciousness studies by applying it to examine the integrated information theory and the global workspace theory of consciousness.

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Developing a short-term phenomenological training program: A report of methodological lessons

Cited by 17 publications

References 22 publications

What Individuals Experience During Visuo-Spatial Working Memory Task Performance: An Exploratory Phenomenological Study

What Individuals Experience During Visuo-Spatial Working Memory Task Performance: An Exploratory Phenomenological Study

First‐person access to decision‐making using micro‐phenomenological self‐inquiry

A Map of Consciousness Studies: Questions and Approaches

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