What is it like to do a visuo-spatial working memory task: A qualitative phenomenological study of the visual span...

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Phenomenology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Working memory is typically assessed via specific psychological tasks.
• Evaluation of working memory tasks often prioritizes measurement reliability over participant experience.
• Understanding subjective experience may illuminate performance variability and conscious experience.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the phenomenological aspects of working memory task performance.
• To explore how participants subjectively experience working memory tasks.
• To identify key phenomenological dynamics during task engagement.

Main Methods:

• Replication of established protocols for phenomenological investigation of working memory.
• Utilized the visual span task for assessment.
• Collected subjective reports from 18 healthy adult participants (21-35 years old).

Main Results:

• Working memory can be phenomenologically characterized across three temporal scales: background feelings, strategies, and tactics.
• Transmodality, the transformation between different modalities of lived experience, was identified as a central phenomenological dynamic.
• Subjective experience provides valuable insights into working memory task performance.

Conclusions:

• The lived experience of participants offers a crucial dimension for understanding working memory.
• Phenomenological analysis reveals distinct temporal layers influencing task performance.
• Transmodality is a key mechanism in the subjective experience of working memory tasks.