Introspection of Complex Cognitive Processes Gabriel Reyes
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Introspection of complex cognitive processes Gabriel Reyes To cite this version: Gabriel Reyes. Introspection of complex cognitive processes. Cognitive Sciences. Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris VI, 2015. English. NNT : 2015PA066566. tel-01331023 HAL Id: tel-01331023 https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01331023 Submitted on 13 Jun 2016 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Université Pierre et Marie Curie – Paris VI École Doctorale Cerveau Cognition Comportement (ED3C) Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique / Brain and consciousness Introspection of Complex Cognitive Processes Gabriel Reyes DOCTORAL THESIS Cognitive Science Advisor: Jérôme SACKUR Presented and defended publicly on the 29st of September 2015 Jury : Dominique Muller, Professeur, Université de Grenoble Rapporteur Axel Cleeremans, Professeur, Université Libre de Bruxelles Rapporteur Jérôme Sackur, Directeur d'Études, EHESS Directeur de thèse Jean Lorenceau, Directeur de Recherche, CNRS Examinateur Claire Sergent, Maître de Conférence, Université Paris V Examinatrice Abstract In the last decade, there has been a huge effort in cognitive science devoted to the understanding of how individuals access their own cognitive productions. However, in contrast with the extensive philosophical work in this area, empirical research about the introspective capacity is still in its infancy. This thesis investigates which mental contents are accessible by introspection, and what constraints apply to introspection. Specific minimal conditions for an adequate introspective report are theorized and investigated, as well as individual factors that might alter the accuracy of introspection. Four experimental projects were developed. The first project, consisting of four experiments, investigates the possibility to introspectively access and discriminate complex cognitive processes in the context of a visual search paradigm (serial searches vs. parallel searches). The second project, consisting of one experiment, refines the results of the first project. We used a pre-conscious visual cue to alter a visual search, and collected introspective data showing that participants were sensitive to this alteration. The results in both projects converge on three main ideas: 1) introspection, under certain and particular experimental conditions, is capable of accessing complex cognitive processes; 2) introspection is permeable to different sources of information underlying the experimental task; 3) the focus of introspection can be experimentally controlled during a simple cognitive task. The third project, composed of two experiments, extends the results evidenced in projects 1 and 2 to another domain: working memory. The study shows that introspection can successfully access the type of cognitive process engaged during memory recovery (serial access to information vs. parallel access). Lastly, the fourth project, composed of two experiments, investigates an individual factor that might alter the precision of introspective reports: biological reactivity to stress. Results indicated that individuals with high reactivity to stress have a poorer introspective access of their mental states. In summary, all experiments presented support the idea that introspection, presents functional properties that are experimentally approachable. Accordingly, the present thesis presents a first systematic account of the functional architecture of introspective report. Table of Contents 1. Introduction 6 1.1. Historical context 6 1.1.1. Before Cognitivism 7 1.1.2. Cognitivism 9 1.1.3. Neuro-Cognitivism 12 1.2. Introspection of high-order cognitive processes 14 1.2.1. The Nisbett and Wilson Canon (NWC) 16 1.2.2. A new framework for the research on Introspection 22 1.3. Experimental studies 26 2. Experimental Studies 29 2.1. Introspection during visual search 30 2.1.1. Introduction 30 2.1.2. Results 30 2.1.3. Discussion 31 2.1.4. Paper 31 2.1.4.1. Experiment 1 39 2.1.4.2. Experiment 2 48 2.1.4.3. Experiment 3 53 2.1.4.4. Experiment 4a-b 58 2.1.4.5. Conclusion 65 2.2. Introspective access to an implicit shift of attention 78 2.2.1. Introduction 78 2.2.2. Results 78 2.2.3. Discussion 79 2.2.4. Paper 79 2.2.4.1. Experiment 84 2.2.4.2. Conclusion 91 2.3. Introspection during working memory scanning 96 2.3.1. Introduction 96 2.3.2. Results 96 2.3.3. Discussion 97 2.3.4. Paper 97 2.3.4.1. Experiment 1 103 2.3.4.2. Experiment 2 109 2.3.4.3. Conclusion 114 2.4. Self-knowledge dim-out: Stress impairs metacognitive accuracy 119 2.4.1. Introduction 119 2.4.2. Results 119 2.4.3. Discussion 120 2.4.4. Paper 120 2.4.4.1. Experiment 125 2.4.4.2. Conclusion 132 2.4.4.3. Pilot Experiment 141 3. Conclusion 148 4. General references 156 6 1. Introduction 1.1. Historical context The term introspection literally means “(lat. spicere) to look (lat. intra) within” (Lyons, 1986; Butler; 2013). In psychological literature, the term is used to refer to the ability in humans, as well as in some other animals (Smith, 2009; Smith, Couchman & Beran, 2012), to monitor their own mind (Flavell, 1979). Even though there is a certain consensus in psychology regarding the conceptualization of introspection today, this situation was completely different in the origin of the discipline, and this is partly explained by the tradition in the philosophy of introspection (Lyons, 1986). Restricting exclusively to the psychological domain, W. Wundt (1832-1920) was the first to maintain that the objective of the study of scientific pure psychology (as opposed to “social psychology”) was immediate experience, and introspection, its method1. In later years, his followers set up a movement known as Introspectionism (Costall, 2006), which proposed building a scientific method focused on training individuals to carry out scientifically controlled introspection processes. In spite of the initial enthusiasm, such movement was not well received by psychologists and philosophers of that time, mainly because introspection as a method for the investigation of cognitive functioning was largely unsuccessful in the scientific context of the first half of the 20th century (Boring, 1953; Danziger, 1980). The result was that for a long period in the history of experimental psychology, introspection formally disappeared from experimental context. Recently, a combination of the rise of cognitivism and a rejuvenated interest for the topic of consciousness has resulted in the return of the study of introspection. Introspection now is considered as a legitimate field in cognitive psychology (Jack & Roepstorff, 2002; Schooler, 2002a) and even amenable to experimentation in neuroscience (Fleming & Frith, 2014). The renewed interest of scientific psychology for introspection responds to a change in perspective: if in its origins introspection was proposed as a possible method of access to mental life, introspection is now conceptualized like any other cognitive process, i.e., an object of scientific research 1 It is important to note the influence of Franz Brentano (1838-1917) in this respect. Brentano, in his book Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint (1984, cited in Lyons, 1986), maintains that the objective of psychology was the mental phenomenon and its method of study, inner-perception (Lyons, 1986). It is important to mention that my own work accepts this theoretical premise: introspection is indeed inner perception. At the same time, I do not consider in any details some distinctions that were crucial for Brentano and Wundt, such as the distinction between inner perception (Wahrnehmung) and inner observation (Beobachtung). Such distinctions are important for a correct understanding of the historical development of introspection (see Butler, 2013), but I did not operationalise them in my experimental work. 7 (Dunlosky & Metcalfe, 2009). Therefore, introspection is not so much a method for psychology as a human psychological faculty (amongst many others). The change of perspective justifies the interest for investigation of the functional conditions surrounding introspection. In the following sections this research introduces the theoretical and experimental breakthroughs which allowed for the development of the science of introspection. 1.1.1. Before Cognitivism An arbitrary starting point for the history of experimental introspection is W. James (1842-1910). In the context of his proposal for a science of psychology, understood as science of mental life, James argues that the study of psychology must partake both to description and explication. On the one hand, psychology should be descriptive, as individuals present a privileged access to their mental states: “the introspective observation is what we have to rely on first and foremost and always” (James, 1890). In strict rigor, James states that, through introspection, individuals can describe their mental states: “everyone agrees that we there discover states of consciousness” (James, 1890). On the other hand, psychology should be explicative as it is interested in the correlation between the