From pure experience to cognitive models: constitutive explanations and modalization in phenomenological cognitivism
Jacopo Colelli
Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences August 12, 2025 DOI: 10.1007/s11097-025-10095-2 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Cognitivism psychology Phenomenology philosophy Epistemology Cognitive science Cognition Interpretative phenomenological analysis Cognitive psychology Metaphysics Qualitative research |
| Citations | 2 |
| Key points | Proposes that Phenomenological Cognitivism, using constitutive explanations and modalization, can directly employ phenomenological descriptions to inform and constrain computational models and the identification of neurobiological mechanisms. |
Abstract
Abstract This paper introduces Phenomenological Cognitivism, a methodological framework grounding psychological explanations within pure experience to elucidate their intentional properties and their embeddness within the layered structure of first-person-experience. Unlike practical phenomenological approaches, which primarily employ phenomenology as a heuristic for data collection, concept formation, or experimental design, Phenomenological Cognitivism utilizes phenomenological functional analyses to directly align sensitivity to intentional properties with the explanatory objectives of cognitive neuroscience. Central to this framework are constitutive explanations, which identify minimal phenomenological structures necessary for cognitive capacities to operate correctly, and modalization, which describes why and how these capacities must adapt functionally within diverse functional architectures and representational dependencies when enacted within different experiential domains or classes of objects. Finally, the paper explains how Phenomenological Cognitivism uniquely supports epistemological model structuring—a methodological approach that can directly employ phenomenological descriptions to inform and constrain the development of computational models and the identification of underlying neurobiological mechanisms.
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| Psychosis as a state of aberrant salience: a framework linking biology, phenomenology, and pharmacology in schizophrenia. | 2003 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From dopamine to salience to psychosis--linking biology, pharmacology and phenomenology of psychosis. | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How do the brain's time and space mediate consciousness and its different dimensions? Temporo-spatial theory of consciousness (TTC). | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The phenomenology of deep brain stimulation-induced changes in OCD: an enactive affordance-based model. | 2013 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Looking for the Self: Phenomenology, Neurophysiology and Philosophical Significance of Drug-induced Ego Dissolution | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cites 10
- Guiding the study of brain dynamics by using first-person data: Synchrony patterns correlate with ongoing conscious states during a simple visual task Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences January 22, 2002
- Studying the experience of meditation through Micro-phenomenology Current Opinion in Psychology October 25, 2018
- Anticipating seizure: pre-reflective experience at the center of neuro-phenomenology. Consciousness and Cognition September 1, 2007
- Epistemic Challenges in Neurophenomenology: Exploring the Reliability of Knowledge and Its Ontological Implications Philosophies October 3, 2023
- Serotonin, Predictive Processing and Psychedelics Philosophy and the Mind Sciences April 19, 2022
and 5 more in the library