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.
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.
•Working memory phenomenology can be described on different time scales.•Same strategies are implemented by different experiential modalities.•Working memory representations are transmodal.•Phenomenological studies of working memory replicate well.
Alarming somatic symptoms, in particular, cardiovascular symptoms, are the characteristic feature of panic attacks. Increased cardiac mortality and morbidity have been found in these patients. Power ...spectral analysis of electrocardiogram R-R intervals is known to be a particularly successful tool in the detection of autonomic instabilities in various clinical disorders. Our study aimed to compare patients with panic disorder and healthy controls in heart rate variation (HRV) parameters (very-low-frequency VLF, low-frequency LF, and high-frequency HF band components of R-R interval) in baseline and during the response to the mental task.
We assessed psychophysiological variables in 33 patients with panic disorder (10 men, 23 women; mean age 35.9±10.7 years) and 33 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (10 men, 23 women; mean age 35.8±12.1 years). Patients were treatment naïve. Heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, and HRV in basal conditions and after the psychological task were assessed. Power spectrum was computed for VLF (0.003-0.04 Hz), LF (0.04-0.15 Hz), and HF (0.15-0.40 Hz) bands using fast Fourier transformation.
In the baseline period, the VLF band was significantly lower in panic disorder group compared to controls (
<0.005). In the period of mental task, the LF/HF ratio was significantly higher in panic disorder patients compared to controls (
<0.05). No significant differences were found in the remaining parameters. There was a significant difference in ΔHF and ΔLF/HF ratio between patients and controls, with Δ increasing in patients and decreasing in controls.
These findings revealed that patients suffering from panic disorder were characterized by relative sympathetic dominance (reactivity) in response to mental stress compared with healthy controls.
We examined data on 32 elite athletes who sought individual psychological support at the Department of Sports Science in the Japan Institute of Sports Sciences, with the aim of clarifying the ...characteristics of their initial complaints and psychological tasks. First, initial complaints were divided into six groups (“psychological instability during competition”, “confusion in interpersonal relationships”, “psychological advice/coaching”, “performance enhancement”, “others”, “no problem”) using the KJ method. Second, chi-square test and Fisher’s exact test were used to investigate the characteristics of the athletes’ initial complaints and the routes to individual psychological support. The results showed that a relatively large number of athletes complained of “psychological instability during competition” and “confusion in interpersonal relationships”, and that many athletes who said that there was “no problem” sought individual psychological support on the recommendation of their coaches and training staff. Finally, case studies were conducted to ascertain the characteristics of athletes’ psychological tasks. This revealed that the need to raise a low level of independence was a common psychological task underlying the athletes’ initial complaints. On the basis of these findings, we discuss what approach and environment for psychological support were needed for these elite athletes.
•We investigated the role of awareness-enhancing tasks in nature experiences.•We found no country differences in the restorative experiences after forest walks.•Satisfaction with the tasks was linked ...to restorative change and mood enhancement.•Nature-connectedness did not moderate either outcome.
The purpose of the study was to investigate whether deliberate psychological tasks, intended to focus people’s attention on the interaction between themselves and natural surroundings, are linked with mood enhancement and self-reported restoration. In four European countries (Finland, France, Luxembourg, Sweden), we surveyed the experiences of volunteers (N=299) who walked forest trails and carried out psychological tasks printed on the signposts along them. We investigated the similarities and differences of the trail experiences between the countries. Via multigroup modeling, we further examined the moderating role of nature-connectedness in relationships between satisfaction with the contents of the psychological tasks, mood enhancement, and restorative benefits. The results showed that, independent of age and gender, participants were more satisfied with the trails in Sweden and Luxembourg than in Finland. We detected no reliable differences in the restorative experiences or willingness to recommend the trail for others. In the moderation model, satisfaction with the signposts’ contents was connected to positive restorative change and mood enhancement. The moderator effects of nature-connectedness were not significant for either outcome. Thus, it is likely that satisfactory tasks will work equally well for people varying in nature-connectedness. This is a promising prospect for public health promotion. The fairly high level of nature-connectedness among the participants limits the generalizability of our results.
Conclusions concerning the role of nature-connectedness should be made with caution due to the limited coverage of the concept in our measure. Future studies that separate the effect of psychological tasks from the restorative effects of nature itself are needed.
From an affective neuroscience perspective, our understanding of psychiatric illness may be advanced by neuropsychological test paradigms probing emotional processes. Reversal learning is one such ...process, whereby subjects must first acquire stimulus/reward and stimulus/punishment associations through trial and error and then reverse them. We sought to determine the specificity of previously demonstrated reversal learning impairments in youths with bipolar disorder (BD) by now comparing BD youths to those with severe mood dysregulation (SMD), major depressive disorder (MDD), anxiety (ANX), and healthy controls.
We administered the probabilistic response reversal (PRR) task to 165 pediatric participants aged 7-17 years with BD (n=35), SMD (n=35), ANX (n=42), MDD (n=18) and normal controls (NC; n=35). Our primary analysis compared PRR performance across all five groups matched for age, sex and IQ.
Compared to typically developing controls, probabilistic reversal learning was impaired in BD youths, with a trend in those with MDD (p=0.07).
Our results suggest that reversal learning deficits are present in youths with BD and possibly those with MDD. Further work is necessary to elucidate the specificity of neural mechanisms underlying such behavioral deficits.
A new concept of community is proposed in this third paper of the series, “Towards a psychoanalytic concept of community”. This concept emphasizes the unconscious, collective, psychological tasks ...involved in creating and sustaining a community, as well as the tasks undertaken by the community in achieving its reason for being. One of the core psychological tasks is the creation of bonding among its members. When a community is being formed it experiences itself subjectively as “us”, and needs to come to terms with what is “not us”. A set of psychological tasks comes into play and they relate to the formation and maintenance of its boundary and identity. Each of these psychological tasks is underpinned by unconscious psychic processes; such as symbolization to create boundary, projective and introjective identifications to create bonds and identity.
Eleven parents of 8-year-olds suffering from PKU were interviewed about their experiences with the disease. The narrative interview method was selected in order to expose the problems from the ...parents' angle without influence through expert prompting. On being notified of the diagnosis after birth, the parents were extremely shocked and went through emotional crises and adjustment problems during the first 12 months. The narcissistic hurt of not having a healthy child was compounded by problems with dietary technique. The behaviour and development of the children themselves were no particular problem. Handling the diet ranked highest among the problems raised by the parents. It turned out that all the parents did not always apply the diet strictly and deviated from it. The underlying reason was a compromise between an ideal attitude towards the diet with the accompanying experience of loss and guilt, and the goal of undisturbed personality development of the child. Discussion groups with therapeutic support are suggested as a way of relieving the burden on the parents.
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