What is it like to do a visuo-spatial working memory task: A qualitative phenomenological study of the visual span task.
Aleš Oblak, Oskar Dragan, Anka Slana Ozimič, Urban Kordeš, Nina Purg, Jurij Bon, Grega Repovš
Consciousness and Cognition February 1, 2024 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2023.103628 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 18 |
| Population | Healthy participants aged 21 to 35 |
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Neurophenomenology Psychological task Visual span Working memory |
| Citations | 8 |
| Key findings | Transmodality, the transformation of one modality of lived experience into another, is the central phenomenological dynamic during working memory task performance. |
Abstract
Working memory is typically measured with specifically designed psychological tasks. When evaluating the validity of working memory tasks, we commonly focus on the reliability of the outcome measurements. Only rarely do we focus on how participants experience these tasks. Accounting for lived experience of working memory task may help us better understand variability in working memory performance and conscious experience in general. We replicated recently established protocols for the phenomenological investigation of working memory using the visual span task. We collected subjective reports from eighteen healthy participants (10 women) aged 21 to 35 years. We observed that working memory can be phenomenologically characterized at three different time scales: background feelings, strategies, and tactics. On the level of tactics, we identified transmodality (i.e., how one modality of lived experience can be transformed into another one) as the central phenomenological dynamic at play during working memory task performance.
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Citations in the library
Cited by 2
Cites 6
- Trait phenomenological control predicts experience of mirror synaesthesia and the rubber hand illusion Nature Communications September 25, 2020
- Microcognitive science: bridging experiential and neuronal microdynamics. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2013
- The Diversity of Strategies Used in Working Memory for Colors, Orientations, and Positions: A Quantitative Approach to a First-Person Inquiry. Cognitive Science August 2023
- Reorganization of the Connectivity between Elementary Functions - A Model Relating Conscious States to Neural Connections. Frontiers in Psychology April 20, 2017
- The New Science of the Mind August 13, 2010
and 1 more in the library