ASSC6 Barcelona: Symposium on Reportability “The end of anonymous phenomenology?”

1. ASSC6 Barcelona: Symposium on Reportability“The end of anonymous phenomenology?” Anthony I Jack 2nd June 2002

2. Outline • Long history of the science of consciousness – the measurement of sensation • Conscious and unconscious processing • Distinguish 1st and 2nd order reports • Anonymous phenomenology – private 1st person enquiries • 2nd person mediates between 1st and 3rd person

3. stimulus perceptual processes sensation psychophysical law ‘Psychophysics’Fechner 1860 dependent variable independent variable

4. observable dependent variable theoretical dependent variable independent variable stimulus perceptual processes sensation response response processes ‘Psychophysics’ WEBER compare two stimuli (intensity I & I+dI): same or different? Just noticeable difference (j.n.d.) = dI at same/diff threshold

5. observable dependent variable theoretical dependent variable independent variable stimulus perceptual processes sensation response response processes ‘Psychophysics’

6. observable dependent variable theoretical dependent variable independent variable stimulus perceptual processes sensation response response processes ‘Psychophysics’

7. Stevens – magnitude estimates observable dependent variable theoretical dependent variable independent variable stimulus perceptual processes sensation response response processes

8. information processing discrimination task observable dependent variable independent variable stimulus response magnitude estimation

9. information processing discrimination task ? observable dependent variable independent variable stimulus response magnitude estimation

10. ‘Psychophysics’ observable dependent variable theoretical dependent variable independent variable stimulus perceptual processes sensation response response processes ? OR

11. ‘Psychophysics’ observable dependent variable theoretical dependent variable independent variable stimulus perceptual processes sensation response response processes OR X

12. ‘Psychophysics’ observable dependent variable theoretical dependent variable independent variable stimulus perceptual processes sensation response response processes X OR

13. 50 years of controversyLaming 1997: The measurement of sensation observable dependent variable theoretical dependent variable independent variable stimulus perceptual processes sensation response response processes ? OR

14. Explaining away blindsight more sensitive response forced- choice discrim. stimulus perceptual processes percept response Presence/ Absence detection less sensitive

15. percept perceptual processes response processes response stimulus processing Conscious and unconscious conscious processing stream non-conscious processing stream

16. percept perceptual processes response processes response stimulus processing Conscious and unconscious VENTRAL - object recognition DORSAL – control of action Milner & Goodale 1995

17. percept perceptual processes response processes response stimulus processing Conscious and unconscious ? ? conscious processing stream non-conscious processing stream e.g. detection, ‘exclusion’ e.g. pointing, discrimination

18. “no necessary correlation between behaviour and conscious experience”Tulving 1989 ‘rehearsal’, ‘imagery’ – primarily experiential ‘monitoring’, ‘working memory’, ‘attention’ – quasi-phenomenological

19. percept perceptual processes response processes response stimulus processing Conscious and unconscious conscious processing stream non-conscious processing stream

20. Type of Report: Attention to: Report reflects e.g. ‘automatic’ behaviour World outside Unconscious Information Discrimination response 1st order (perceptual) World outside Perceptual representation Discrimination response 1st order (non-perceptual) thought /imagery /memory Contents of experience Verbal protocols(Ericcson & Simon, 1993) 2nd order (introspective) Experience / own mental state Nature of experience “I had a clear visual percept” Types of report

21. Anonymous phenomenology • Psychologists assume the relationship between behaviour and experience remains constant across normal subjects. • Experimenters engage in their own phenomenological enquiries, and simply present us with the results. • (a)    Claims about the properties of experience. e.g. Tononi and Edelman: “Each conscious state comprises a single ‘scene’ that cannot be decomposed into independent components” • (b)   When any attempt is made to measure any subjective state using behaviour e.g. awareness can be measured by task x • (c)    When they make reference to phenomenological concepts like ‘rehearsal’ or ‘imagery’ or to quasi-phenomenological concepts like ‘monitoring’ or ‘working memory’

22. A science of experience? • The data must be separate from the hypotheses, so that scientists can engage in a productive debate about which hypothesis the data really supports. • The ability to engage in constructive debates about the interpretation of introspective evidence is a prerequisite for the development of a science of consciousness.

23. Type of report Report reflects Subject’s access 1st order Contents of experience Direct 2nd order (introspective) Nature of experience – ‘what it is like’ Indirect knowing our own minds

24. Perspective Type of interaction Intervention (independent variable) Observation (dependent variable) Theoreticaldomain 1st With self Meta-cognition / executive processes experience Phenomenology 2nd With experimenter Script (instructions, questions) Introspective reports (2nd order reports) Social Anthropology 3rd With environment Stimulus Response (1st order reports) Cognitive psychology 3rd Neurological TMS/lesion e.g. fMRI, EEG Neuroscience Modified from “Introspection and Cognitive Brain Mapping: From stimulus-response to script-report”Anthony Jack & Andreas Roepstorff. Due to appear in August issue of Trends in Cognitive Science.

25. I am interested in astronomy, but I don’t care how telescopes work. • I am interested in quarks, but not in particle accelerator experiments. • I am interested in functional regional cerebral blood flow, but I find that the methodologies of SPECT, PET, fMRI and optical imaging are a boring irrelevance. • I am interested in consciousness, but I don’t care how introspection works.