Visuospatial working memory task-performance strategies and their representational modalities: a neurophenomenological study.

Aleš Oblak (2020) Visuospatial working memory task-performance strategies and their representational modalities: a neurophenomenological study.. MSc thesis.

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Abstract

Traditionally, researchers in cognitive science consider intersubject variability (i.e., differences among individuals performing the same psychological task) to be noise in the data. Contemporary approaches, however, are calling for intersubject variability to be understood as its own source of data that is to be understood and not merely removed. Such approaches primarily rely on discovering different cognitive strategies and cognitive styles within intersubject variability. In the present master’s thesis, the possibility that at least a part of intersubject variability is related to differences in experience during task performance is addressed. In order to test this possibility, a neurophenomenological study has been performed. The co-researchers who performed a change-detection task were prompted at a random moment to report on their experience. This report took the form of a detailed empirical phenomenological interview. The gathered qualitative data has been analysed in accordance with the constructivist grounded theory approach. It has been discovered that not only do individuals use different strategies to solve the same working memory task, but also that the task-performance is accompanied by a wealth of parallel and background feelings. It has been conjectured that there is a possibility that holistic descriptions of attitudes and dispositions towards the task – accessible on the level of experience as background feelings – are a phenomenon that should be explored in future neuroimaging studies of working memory.

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