Task 3

Question 1

What is the Assumption of Concordance when it comes to introspective verbal reports?

Answer 1

The assumption that what is verbally reported or otherwise indicated, is also conscious. This has rarely been varified.

Question 2

What are circumstances under which Introspective Verbal Reports are the most reliable?

Answer 2

• Shortly after the event

Question 3

What are main points of criticism against introspection?

Answer 3

• They can be made inaccurate by a host of cognitive or attentional biases
• The act of introspection changes the phenomenal experience
• Forgetting can occur
• Reconstruction Errors
• Verbal Description Difficulties
• Intentional Censorship by the reporter
• Lack of independent validation

Question 4

What are the types of introspection?

Answer 4

• Analytical / Classical
• Descriptive / Phenomenological
• Interpretive

Question 5

Relate Titchener’s Structuralism to Analytical introspective reports?

Answer 5

In both, one tries to explain the whole in terms of its elementary parts / basic elements

Question 6

Which group of psychologists is against analytical introspective reports as well as Titchener’s Structuralism?

Answer 6

Gestalt Psychologists

Question 7

What is a logical flaw of Analytical introspective reports?

Answer 7

Different reporters gave different observations in the same situations, which according to analytical IVRs wouldn’t be possible, since the same basic stimuli should give rise to the same elemental sensations.

Question 8

When interested in phenomenal accounts, what kinds of IVRs are appropriate?

Answer 8

Analytical, Descriptive

Question 9

What is the basis of Descriptive IVRs?

Answer 9

The simple description of one’s inner life in language, without analyzing it -> What do I perceive/feel?

Question 10

What is a major limitation of phenomenological IVRs?

Answer 10

Forgetting

Question 11

Which questions does one ask oneself in interpretive IVRs?

Answer 11

Why do I feel this way? Why did I do this?

Question 12

Why do some people doubt the interpretive IVRs?

Answer 12

They argue, one cannot find the cause of one’s cognition just by thinking about it.

Question 13

What are reconstruction errors?

Answer 13

• When people report more than they actually recall

- When the report is more organized than what is actually recalled

Question 14

Which term explains the phenomenon that introspection might change the experience one tries to report?

Answer 14

Introspective Uncertainty Principle

Question 15

What are some things one can do to make up for the lack of independent validation in IVRs?

Answer 15

• Comparing with other reports made by the same person or other people under the same conditions ~ increasing N
• Evaluating the verbal reports using other behavioral and physiological measures
• Using psychological theories to evaluate the reports

Question 16

What are some methods of obtaining introspective reports, that can be done in one session?

Answer 16

• Thinking out loud
• Retrospective Reports
• (Group) Questionnaires

Question 17

What are some methods of obtaining introspective reports over time?

Answer 17

• Thought Sampling
• Event Recording
• Diaries

Question 18

What is a major advantage and disadvantage of questionnaires?

Answer 18

+: Cost-efficient and practical in determining means

-: Items determine responses to some degree

Question 19

Why is introspection always retrospective?

Answer 19

As we describe something, we are merely describing the phenomenal memory of the perception.

Question 20

Introspective Reports are limited by three factors associated with memory processes. What are these?

Answer 20

• Incomplete Storage
• Incomplete Retrieval
• Distortions in reconstruction of experiences

Question 21

What is the basic logical idea behind trying to find the NCC of Visual Awareness?

Answer 21

One must produce the physiological underpinnings of sight without the conscious awareness of it.

Question 22

There are many ways to make a human see something without being aware of it. Name some.

Answer 22

Degraded Visual Stimulation
Masking
Crowding
Bistable Figures
Binocular Rivalry
Motion-induced blindness
Inattentional Blindness
Change Blindness
Attentional Blink

Question 23

What happens in degraded visual stimulation?

Answer 23

Presenting a stimulus for an amount of time that is too short for the individual to become aware of the cue

Question 24

What happens in masking?

Answer 24

Presenting a second masking stimulus rapidly after presenting the target

Question 25

What do you call it when the visual stimulation is unchanging but the awareness of the target image switches between states of awareness?

Answer 25

Bistable Perception

Question 26

What are the two paradigms that fall under the category of Disrupted Awareness by distracted Attention?

Answer 26

Inattentional Blindness
Change Blindness
Attentional Blink

Question 27

What is a major positive and negative of inattentional and change blindness paradigms?

Answer 27

Very natural and thus generalizable, but difficult to implement in the lab

Question 28

Explain the Attentional Blink

Answer 28

In a rapid sequence of stimuli, when looking for two targets, there is a short time window after detecting target one, where we will most likely not catch target two.

Question 29

What are two advantages of the Attentional Blink paradigm?

Answer 29

It is experimentally realizable and also possible in peripheral as well as fovea viewing

Question 30

What are the methods of studying the visual NCC, in which one can control the timing of the states of awareness of the subject?

Answer 30

Masking, Crowding, Attentional Blink

Question 31

What are the methods of studying the visual NCC, in which one can not use fovea vision?

Answer 31

Crowding, Motion-induced Blindness