Current Opinion in Psychology
October 25, 2018
Claire Petitmengin, Martijn van Beek, Michel Bitbol et al.
163 citations
Meditation research mostly examines neurophysiology, but the actual moment-to-moment experience of meditating—what it feels like at different stages and in different practices—remains largely unstudied. This article reports a pilot project that used 'micro-phenomenological' interview methods to help meditators describe their lived experience with rigor and precision. The results show that such detailed descriptions can deepen understanding of meditation, improve practice, and inform teaching, revealing a valuable but overlooked dimension of contemplative science.
Frontiers in human neuroscience
January 1, 2013
Micah Allen, Jonathan Smallwood, Joanna Christensen et al.
100 citations
Mind-wandering, or task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs), is common and often impairs performance on demanding tasks, but new findings show it can also enhance metacognitive abilities. Using the Error Awareness Task (EAT), researchers found that individual differences in average TUTs strongly predicted stop accuracy, while variability in TUTs specifically predicted error awareness. Brain imaging revealed that both response inhibition and TUT ratings activated the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of the default mode network (DMN), but in distinct dorsal areas, suggesting functional segregation. Co-activation of salience and default mode regions during error awareness linked monitoring to TUTs. The results suggest that fluctuations between internal and external thought, rather than constant focus, characterize individuals with greater metacognitive monitoring, and balancing these modes may optimize task performance.
Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences
July 10, 2021
Simon Høffding, Kristian Moltke Martiny, Andreas Roepstorff
45 citations
Phenomenological interviews are a valid and reliable source of knowledge, no less trustworthy than quantitative or experimental methods. The paper addresses skeptic objections about introspection, the unreliability of episodic memory, and the inability of interviews to address psychological, cognitive, and biological correlates of experience. It argues that rejecting the methodological and epistemological justification of phenomenological interviews leads to a deep mistrust that undermines scientific discourse by excluding conscious processes as objects of explanation, with serious consequences for the conception of science.
The Oxford Handbook of 4E Cognition
October 9, 2018
Andreas Roepstorff, Tobias Starzak
Taking an evolutionary perspective on 4E cognition—embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended—reveals how cultural and biological evolution shape cognition beyond individual brains. Four papers analyze cognition across historical and evolutionary timescales, embedding its dynamics in groups and species. While abstract representations remain important, focusing too narrowly on representational cognition overlooks the basic mechanisms that support and drive cognition. To grasp these mechanisms, one must understand not only how cognitive processes are embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended, but also how they are shaped, transmitted, and diversified through group formation.