Task 3

Question 1

Introspective verbal report (IRV)

Answer 1

A verbal description of one’s conscious experience as observed by introspection.

Question 2

Structuralism

Answer 2

• The view that conscious experience is constructed from a limited number of “elements” of sensory experience and simple feelings, and that these elements could be discovered through introspection
• More complex percepts and ideas are the “molecules” of experience.

Assumption underlying analytical introspection

Question 3

Stimulus error

Answer 3

• For example, while observing a table from across the room, an observer may describe his experience as a visual sensation of a quadrilateral form (not a rectangle, since the retinal image of a table viewed from the side is quadrilateral, a rectangle is a higher-order perception), shading from grey to white, with columnar appendages (legs) hanging from 3 corners (only 3 legs are visible to the observer), etc.
• If the observer says “I see a table”, they commit a stimulus error

Question 4

Analytic/classical introspection

Answer 4

An attempt to describe one’s conscious experience in terms of its elementary constituents

Question 5

Descriptive/phenomenological introspection

Answer 5

• Simply describing one’s conscious experience in natural language terms. It asks “What did I perceive/think/feel?”
• Descriptive introspection is one step away from the immediate experience. While immediate experience is primary consciousness, descriptive introspection is a matter of reflective consciousness.

Question 6

Interpretative introspection

Answer 6

Introspection intended to discover the causes of our thoughts, feelings and action. It asks Why do I perceive/think/feel this way?

Question 7

Limitations of introspective verbal reports

7

Answer 7

1. Forgetting
2. Reconstruction errors
3. Verbal description difficulties
4. Distortion through observation
5. Censorship
6. Experimental demands
7. Lack of independent verification

Question 8

Methods of obtaining introspective reports

Answer 8

1. Thinking out loud
2. Thought sampling
3. Retrospective reports
4. Event recording
5. Diaries
6. Group questionnaires

Question 9

Thinking out loud

Methods of obtaining introspective reports

Answer 9

Subjects make a continuous verbal report on conscious contents while they are in a particular situation.

Question 10

Thought sampling

Methods of obtaining introspective reports

Answer 10

Subjects are instructed that whenever a designated signal occurs, they are to report what they were thinking at the moment the signal occurred. In between
signals they are free to do what they would normally do

Question 11

Retrospective reports

Methods of obtaining introspective reports

Answer 11

Used to collect data about thoughts that occurred on a specified previous occasion

Question 12

Event recording

Methods of obtaining introspective reports

Answer 12

Subjects note each occurrence of a designated type of thought (e.g. anxiety or aggression thoughts) in a notebook or on a tape recorded.

Question 13

Diaries

Methods of obtaining introspective reports

Answer 13

Written narrative reports of one’s activities and thoughts, in which entries are made periodically over a period of several days/months/years.

Question 14

Group questionnaires

Methods of obtaining introspective reports

Answer 14

Questionnaires admitted to large numbers of people, aimed to get a lot of data from a lot of people as quickly and as cheaply as possible

Question 15

What introspection is not

Answer 15

1. Introspection is not merely equivalent to having conscious experiences.
2. Introspection does not deal with all conscious experiences
3. Introspection is not a sensory process
4. Introspective reports describe conscious experiences, not brain processes.
5. Introspection is not simply the making of inferences about our mental states, based on our overt behavior
6. Introspection is not direct inner observation.

Question 16

2 principles relevant to all types of introspection

Answer 16

1. Introspection is thinking about one’s primary conscious experiences for the purpose of describing and interpreting them and does not differ fundamentally from other cases of descriptive and interpretative thought
2. The data from introspection come from memory. Strictly speaking, introspection is retrospection.

Question 17

4 conditions of incomplete verbal reports

Answer 17

1. The event was never attended to, so it was not stored in short-term memory and not available for verbal reports.
2. The information is in short-term memory, but it is not reported, e.g. decides to withhold the report in order to
   protect privacy etc.
3. The information was briefly in STM, but was not transferred to LTM.
4. The information is in LTM but cannot be retrieved for reporting.

Question 18

Primary consciousness

Answer 18

Immediate experience

Question 19

Reflective consciousness

Answer 19

Descriptive introspection for example, one step removed from primary consciousness

Question 20

Introspective
Uncertainty Principle

Answer 20

Attempting to introspectively observe one’s conscious contents may change the contents that are being observed

Question 21

Doctrine of concordance

Answer 21

Belief that subjective experiences of consciousness align with underlying neural processes, guiding neuroscientific research to explore the relationship between mental states and brain activity using techniques like fMRI, EEG, and MEG.