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

Abstract

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.

The Diversity of Strategies Used in Working Memory for Colors, Orientations, and Positions: A Quantitative Approach to a First‐Person Inquiry

“…The study of individual experience during a psychological task using a phenomenological approach is a relatively new area of research (Berkovich‐Ohana et al., 2020). In our recent work (Oblak et al., 2022), using a combination of change detection tasks and in‐depth phenomenological interviews, we identified a set of 18 cognitive strategies that participants used to perform the task. We categorized the identified strategies into active and passive strategies based on perceived engagement and into encoding, maintenance, and retrieval strategies based on the phase of the task to which they related.…”

“…For these reasons, in our recent study (Oblak, Slana Ozimič, Repovš, & Kordeš, 2022), we took the first steps toward examining the full range of phenomenology of working memory task performance. Participants were instructed to remember colors, orientations, or positions of stimuli presented in a change detection task.…”

The diversity of strategies used in working memory for colors, orientations, and positions: A quantitative approach to a first-person inquiry

“…Although strategies have also been studied using openended questions, e.g., by simply asking participants about the memory strategies they used in a task (e.g., Miller et al, 2012), to our knowledge, an in-depth phenomenological study (Berkovich-Ohana et al, 2020; Hurlburt, 2011; Petitmengin, 2006) of individuals' experiences related to performing a working memory task, including strategies, has never been conducted. In our recent study (Oblak et al, 2022), we took the first steps toward examining the full range of phenomenology of working memory task performance. Participants were instructed to remember colors, orientations, or positions of stimuli presented in a change detection task.…”

“…This division of experiences has previously 139 been described in consciousness research (Colombetti, The phenomena at the front of consciousness are rela-151 tively effable, that is, there are concepts and terms that can 152 be readily applied to them (Jaspers, 1997). Analysis of the 153 phenomena at the front of consciousness (Oblak et al, 2022) 154 revealed that they included experiential categories that were 155 directly related to the performance of the working memory 156 task and could be defined with reference to the structure of Participants who were unable to provide valid experiential reports 1 (N = 7) and who did not participate in all three between them (codebook available at https://osf.io/mkp8b/; Oblak et al, 2022). For the purpose of this paper, we have slightly adjusted the names of some of the L2 categories, e.g.…”

“…A. Taxonomy of reported strategies on different levels of abstraction (L2 -L5). Note that L1 levels are not included in this figure and are presented elsewhere(Oblak et al, 2022). B.…”