Inner Experiences: Theory, Measurement, Frequency, Content, and Functions

One fundamental topic of scientific inquiry in psychology is the study of what William James called the 'stream of consciousness', our ongoing experience of the world and ourselves from within—our inner experiences. These internal states (aka "stimulus-independent thoughts") include inner speech, me...

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Huvudupphov: Alain Morin, Jason D. Runyan, Thomas M. Brinthaupt
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Språk:engelska
Utgiven: Frontiers Media SA 2021
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author Alain Morin
Jason D. Runyan
Thomas M. Brinthaupt
author_browse Alain Morin
Jason D. Runyan
Thomas M. Brinthaupt
author_facet Alain Morin
Jason D. Runyan
Thomas M. Brinthaupt
author_sort Alain Morin
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description One fundamental topic of scientific inquiry in psychology is the study of what William James called the 'stream of consciousness', our ongoing experience of the world and ourselves from within—our inner experiences. These internal states (aka "stimulus-independent thoughts") include inner speech, mental imagery, feelings, sensory awareness, internally produced sounds or music, unsymbolized thinking, and mentalizing (thinking about others' mental states). They may occur automatically during mind-wandering (daydreaming) and resting-state episodes, and may focus on one's past, present, or future ("mental time travel" - e.g., autonoetic consciousness). Inner experiences also may take the form of intrusive or ruminative thoughts. The types, characteristics, frequency, content, and functions of inner experiences have been studied using a variety of traditional methods, among which questionnaires, thought listing procedures (i.e., open-ended self-reports), thinking aloud techniques, and daily dairies. Another approach, articulatory suppression, consists in blocking participants' use of verbal thinking while completing a given task; deficits indicate that inner speech plays a causal role in normal task completion. Various thought sampling approaches have also been developed in an effort to gather more ecologically valid data. Previous thought sampling studies have relied on beepers that signal participants to report aspects of their inner experiences at random intervals. More recent studies are exploiting smartphone technology to easily and reliably probe randomly occurring inner experiences in large samples of participants. These various measures have allowed researchers to learn some fundamental facts about inner experiences. To illustrate, it is becoming increasingly clear that prospection (future-oriented thinking) greatly depends on access to autobiographical memory (past-oriented thinking), where recollection of past scenes is used as a template to formulate plausible future scenarios. The main goal of the present Research Topic was to offer a scientific platform for the dissemination of current high-quality research pertaining to inner experiences. Although data on all forms of inner experiences were welcome, reports on recent advances in inner speech research were particularly encouraged. Here are some examples of topics of interest: (1) description and validation of new scales, inventories, questionnaires measuring any form of inner experience; (2) novel uses or improvements of existing measures of inner experiences; (3) development of new smartphone technology facilitating or broadening the use of cell phones to sample inner experiences; (4) frequency, content, and functions of various inner experience; (5) correlations between personality or cognitive variables and any aspects of inner experiences; (6) philosophical or theoretical considerations pertaining to inner experiences; and (7) inner experience changes with age.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-502712024-03-29T08:01:03Z Inner Experiences: Theory, Measurement, Frequency, Content, and Functions Alain Morin Jason D. Runyan Thomas M. Brinthaupt BF1-990 Q1-390 Time Perception fMRI resting state unsymbolized thinking self-consciousness inner speech mind wandering Thought sampling Self-report scales autobiography bic Book Industry Communication::J Society & social sciences::JM Psychology thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JM Psychology One fundamental topic of scientific inquiry in psychology is the study of what William James called the 'stream of consciousness', our ongoing experience of the world and ourselves from within—our inner experiences. These internal states (aka "stimulus-independent thoughts") include inner speech, mental imagery, feelings, sensory awareness, internally produced sounds or music, unsymbolized thinking, and mentalizing (thinking about others' mental states). They may occur automatically during mind-wandering (daydreaming) and resting-state episodes, and may focus on one's past, present, or future ("mental time travel" - e.g., autonoetic consciousness). Inner experiences also may take the form of intrusive or ruminative thoughts. The types, characteristics, frequency, content, and functions of inner experiences have been studied using a variety of traditional methods, among which questionnaires, thought listing procedures (i.e., open-ended self-reports), thinking aloud techniques, and daily dairies. Another approach, articulatory suppression, consists in blocking participants' use of verbal thinking while completing a given task; deficits indicate that inner speech plays a causal role in normal task completion. Various thought sampling approaches have also been developed in an effort to gather more ecologically valid data. Previous thought sampling studies have relied on beepers that signal participants to report aspects of their inner experiences at random intervals. More recent studies are exploiting smartphone technology to easily and reliably probe randomly occurring inner experiences in large samples of participants. These various measures have allowed researchers to learn some fundamental facts about inner experiences. To illustrate, it is becoming increasingly clear that prospection (future-oriented thinking) greatly depends on access to autobiographical memory (past-oriented thinking), where recollection of past scenes is used as a template to formulate plausible future scenarios. The main goal of the present Research Topic was to offer a scientific platform for the dissemination of current high-quality research pertaining to inner experiences. Although data on all forms of inner experiences were welcome, reports on recent advances in inner speech research were particularly encouraged. Here are some examples of topics of interest: (1) description and validation of new scales, inventories, questionnaires measuring any form of inner experience; (2) novel uses or improvements of existing measures of inner experiences; (3) development of new smartphone technology facilitating or broadening the use of cell phones to sample inner experiences; (4) frequency, content, and functions of various inner experience; (5) correlations between personality or cognitive variables and any aspects of inner experiences; (6) philosophical or theoretical considerations pertaining to inner experiences; and (7) inner experience changes with age. 2021-02-11T16:16:00Z 2021-02-11T16:16:00Z 2016-04-07 11:22:02 2016 book 18890 16648714 9782889197712 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/50271 eng Frontiers Research Topics image/jpeg Attribution 4.0 International http://www.frontiersin.org/books/Inner_Experiences_Theory_Measurement_Frequency_Content_and_Functions/807 http://journal.frontiersin.org/researchtopic/2403/inner-experiences-theory-measurement-frequency-content-and-functions Frontiers Media SA 10.3389/978-2-88919-771-2 10.3389/978-2-88919-771-2 bf5ce210-e72e-4860-ba9b-c305640ff3ae 9782889197712 163 open access
spellingShingle BF1-990
Q1-390
Time Perception
fMRI
resting state
unsymbolized thinking
self-consciousness
inner speech
mind wandering
Thought sampling
Self-report scales
autobiography
bic Book Industry Communication::J Society & social sciences::JM Psychology
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JM Psychology
Alain Morin
Jason D. Runyan
Thomas M. Brinthaupt
Inner Experiences: Theory, Measurement, Frequency, Content, and Functions
title Inner Experiences: Theory, Measurement, Frequency, Content, and Functions
title_full Inner Experiences: Theory, Measurement, Frequency, Content, and Functions
title_fullStr Inner Experiences: Theory, Measurement, Frequency, Content, and Functions
title_full_unstemmed Inner Experiences: Theory, Measurement, Frequency, Content, and Functions
title_short Inner Experiences: Theory, Measurement, Frequency, Content, and Functions
title_sort inner experiences theory measurement frequency content and functions
topic BF1-990
Q1-390
Time Perception
fMRI
resting state
unsymbolized thinking
self-consciousness
inner speech
mind wandering
Thought sampling
Self-report scales
autobiography
bic Book Industry Communication::J Society & social sciences::JM Psychology
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JM Psychology
topic_facet BF1-990
Q1-390
Time Perception
fMRI
resting state
unsymbolized thinking
self-consciousness
inner speech
mind wandering
Thought sampling
Self-report scales
autobiography
bic Book Industry Communication::J Society & social sciences::JM Psychology
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JM Psychology
url 18890
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