-
Synthese 2022This article provides an account of intuitions: Affectivism. Affectivism states that intuitions are emotional experiences. The article proceeds as follows: first, the...
This article provides an account of intuitions: Affectivism. Affectivism states that intuitions are emotional experiences. The article proceeds as follows: first, the features that intuitions are typically taken to have are introduced. Then some issues with extant theories are outlined. After that, emotional experiences and their central features are brought into view. This is followed by a comparison of intuitions and emotional experiences, yielding the result that emotional experiences fit and elucidate the feature profile of intuitions. Finally, it is specified what kind of emotional experiences intuitions are: intuitions are typically mild emotional experiences that belong to the subclass of epistemic feelings.
PubMed: 35789946
DOI: 10.1007/s11229-022-03749-0 -
Frontiers in Psychology 2020In cognitive psychology novelty is an antecedent of attention, emotion, memory, and behavior. However, the relationship between novelty and experience memorability...
In cognitive psychology novelty is an antecedent of attention, emotion, memory, and behavior. However, the relationship between novelty and experience memorability remains conceptually underdeveloped in tourism. This research applies cognitive appraisal theory (CAT) to explore the contribution of novelty and emotion to memorable tourism experiences (MTEs). Seventy-five novel travel episodes were identified through semi-structured interviews. Analysis focused on the antecedent and consequent conditions of novelty. Novel experiences, whether positive or negative, were identified as critical to experience memorability. Novelty could be segmented into trip-related and event-related dimensions. Novelty contributes to how spatial, temporal, and contextual details of tourism experiences are remembered and reconstructed due to the elicitation of intense emotions. Analysis revealed negative experiences deemed as novel were found to be re-evaluated and often remembered as a positive experience. A conceptual model titled "cognitive appraisal of novelty in memorable tourism experiences" is presented for consideration in future research. By applying a retrospective and prospective approach the conceptual model explores the role of novelty through the process of cognitive appraisal, identifying goals, attention, and prior experiences as central for the experience of novelty. Future research should consider the application of recent advance in CAT to advance inquiry on tourism experiences as a psychological phenomenon.
PubMed: 32174872
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00322 -
European Journal of Philosophy Mar 2020We develop a broader, more fine-grained taxonomy of forms of transformative experience, inspired by the work of L. A. Paul. Our vulnerability to such experiences arises,...
We develop a broader, more fine-grained taxonomy of forms of transformative experience, inspired by the work of L. A. Paul. Our vulnerability to such experiences arises, we argue, due to the vulnerability, dependence, and affliction intrinsic to the human condition. We use this trio to distinguish a variety of positively, negatively, and ambivalently valenced forms of epistemically and/or personally transformative experiences. Moreover, we argue that many transformative experiences can arise gradually and cumulatively, unfolding over the course of longer periods of time.
PubMed: 32421021
DOI: 10.1111/ejop.12480 -
Translational Neuroscience 2017Synesthesia is commonly thought to be a phenomenon of fixed associations between an outside inducer and a vivid concurrent experience. Hence, it has been proposed that...
Synesthesia is commonly thought to be a phenomenon of fixed associations between an outside inducer and a vivid concurrent experience. Hence, it has been proposed that synesthesia occurs due to additional connections in the brain with which synesthetes are born. Here we show that synesthesia can be a much richer and more flexible phenomenon with a capability to creatively construct novel synesthetic experiences as events unfold in people's lives. We describe here cases of synesthetes who occasionally generate novel synesthetic experience, called one-shot synesthesias. These synesthetic experiences seem to share all the properties with the classical synesthetic associations except that they occur extremely rarely, people recalling only a few events over the lifetime. It appears that these one-shots are not created at random but are instead responses to specific life events. We contrast the properties of those rare synesthetic events with other, more commonly known forms of synesthesia that also create novel synesthetic experiences, but at a high rate-sometimes creating novel experiences every few seconds. We argue that one-shot synesthesias indicate that synesthetic associations are by their nature not prewired at birth but are dynamically constructed through mental operations and according to the needs of a synesthetic mind. Our conclusions have implications for understanding the biological underpinnings of synesthesia and the role the phenomenon plays in the lives of people endowed with synesthetic capacities.
PubMed: 29188078
DOI: 10.1515/tnsci-2017-0023 -
Neuroscience of Consciousness 2022'Why would we do anything at all if the doing was not doing something to us?' In other words: What is consciousness good for? Here, reversing classical views, according... (Review)
Review
'Why would we do anything at all if the doing was not doing something to us?' In other words: What is consciousness good for? Here, reversing classical views, according to many of which subjective experience is a mere epiphenomenon that affords no functional advantage, we propose that subject-level experience-'What it feels like'-is endowed with intrinsic value, and it is precisely the value agents associate with their experiences that explains why they do certain things and avoid others. Because experiences have value and guide behaviour, consciousness has a function. Under this hypothesis of 'phenomenal worthiness', we argue that it is only in virtue of the fact that conscious agents 'experience' things and 'care' about those experiences that they are 'motivated' to act in certain ways and that they 'prefer' some states of affairs vs. others. Overviewing how the concept of value has been approached in decision-making, emotion research and consciousness research, we argue that phenomenal consciousness has intrinsic value and conclude that if this is indeed the case, then it must have a function. Phenomenal experience might act as a mental currency of sorts, which not only endows conscious mental states with intrinsic value but also makes it possible for conscious agents to compare vastly different experiences in a common subject-centred space-a feature that readily explains the fact that consciousness is 'unified'. The phenomenal worthiness hypothesis, in turn, makes the 'hard problem' of consciousness more tractable, since it can then be reduced to a problem about function.
PubMed: 35479522
DOI: 10.1093/nc/niac007 -
BMJ Open Jun 2017To analyse free-text responses from the first Scottish Cancer Patient Experience Survey (SCPES) to understand patients' experiences of care, identify valued aspects and...
OBJECTIVES
To analyse free-text responses from the first Scottish Cancer Patient Experience Survey (SCPES) to understand patients' experiences of care, identify valued aspects and areas for improvement.
DESIGN
Inductive thematic analysis of seven free-text comment boxes covering all stages of the cancer experience, from a national cohort survey.
SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS
Adult cancer patients diagnosed across all Health Boards in Scotland between July 2013 and March 2014, and who had an inpatient stay or hospital visit between January and September 2014. 2663 respondents (of n=4835 survey respondents) provided 6961 free-text comments.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Positive and negative themes of patients' experiences. Differences in the proportion of positive to negative comments by demographics.
METHODS
Data were analysed as follows: (1) comments were initially categorised at a high level (eg, positive, negative, miscellaneous, etc); (2) inductive codes were derived and applied to all relevant comments; (3) codes sharing similar meaning were amalgamated into subthemes, and code frequencies were measured; (4) subthemes were mapped into overarching themes; (5) difference in the proportion of positive to negative comments by demographics were analysed using χ tests.
RESULTS
Participants made more positive than negative comments (1:0.78). Analysis highlighted the importance to patients of and . Comments also provided insight into how and within the system of care can negatively impact on patients' experience. Particular issues were identified with care experiences in the lead-up to diagnosis.
CONCLUSIONS
This analysis provides a detailed understanding of patients' cancer care experiences, therefore indicating what aspects matter in those experiences. Although the majority of comments were positive, there were a significant number of negative comments, especially about the lead-up to diagnosis. Comments suggest patients would value greater integration of care from services involved in their treatment for cancer.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Cross-Sectional Studies; Delivery of Health Care; Female; Health Care Surveys; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Neoplasms; Patient Satisfaction; Qualitative Research; Quality Improvement; Quality Indicators, Health Care; Scotland; Text Messaging; Young Adult
PubMed: 28619780
DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-015726 -
American Journal of Pharmaceutical... Jan 2021To describe the role of examinee knowledge and experience in situational judgment test (SJT) response processes. Thirty participants (15 students and 15 pharmacists)...
To describe the role of examinee knowledge and experience in situational judgment test (SJT) response processes. Thirty participants (15 students and 15 pharmacists) completed a 12-item SJT on empathy. Each participant completed a think-aloud interview followed by a cognitive interview to elicit their understanding of the items and factors that influenced their response selections. Interviews were coded to identify references to general and job-specific knowledge and experiences. Utterances were quantified to explore differences in the occurrence based on the individual item, item setting (ie, health care or non-health care setting), participant type (ie, student or pharmacists), and empathy component being assessed (ie, affective or cognitive empathy). Participants made 480 references to knowledge and experiences: 45.2% were job-specific knowledge or experiences, 27.5% were general knowledge or experiences, 17.9% related to a lack of experience, and 9.4% were nondescript and could not be distinguished. There were significant differences in the reference to general and job-specific knowledge or experiences based on whether the item scenario occurred in a health care or non-health care setting and the component of empathy being assessed. Experience references often included comments about location, actors, task, similarity, specificity, and recency; knowledge references were classified by information, strategies, and skills. Findings from this study suggest general and job-specific knowledge and experiences influence response processes in SJTs.
Topics: Education, Pharmacy; Humans; Judgment; Pharmacists; Psychometrics; Reproducibility of Results; Students, Pharmacy
PubMed: 34281820
DOI: 10.5688/ajpe8194 -
International Journal of Environmental... Apr 2022A positive experience in response to a piece of music or a work of art (hence 'music/art') has been linked to health and wellbeing outcomes but can often be reported as... (Review)
Review
A positive experience in response to a piece of music or a work of art (hence 'music/art') has been linked to health and wellbeing outcomes but can often be reported as indescribable (ineffable), creating challenges for research. What do these positive experiences feel like, beyond 'positive'? How are loved works that evoke profoundly emotions explained? To address these questions, two simultaneously occurring classes of experience are proposed: the 'emotion class' of experience (ECE) and the positive 'affect class' of experience (PACE). ECE consists of conventional, discrete, and communicable emotions with a reasonably well-established lexicon. PACE relates to a more private world of prototypical aesthetic emotions and experiences investigated in positive psychology. After a review of the literature, this paper proposes that PACE consists of physical correlates (tears, racing heart…) and varied amounts of 'hedonic tone' (HT), which range from shallow, personal leanings (preference, liking, attraction, etc.) to deep ones that include awe, being-moved, thrills, and wonder. PACE is a separate, simultaneously activated class of experience to ECE. The approach resolves long-standing debates about powerful, positive experiences taking place during negative emotion evocation by music/art. A list of possible terms for describing PACE is proposed.
Topics: Emotions; Esthetics; Music
PubMed: 35457603
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19084735 -
Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience 2015We review the plastic changes of the prefrontal cortex of the rat in response to a wide range of experiences including sensory and motor experience, gonadal hormones,... (Review)
Review
We review the plastic changes of the prefrontal cortex of the rat in response to a wide range of experiences including sensory and motor experience, gonadal hormones, psychoactive drugs, learning tasks, stress, social experience, metaplastic experiences, and brain injury. Our focus is on synaptic changes (dendritic morphology and spine density) in pyramidal neurons and the relationship to behavioral changes. The most general conclusion we can reach is that the prefrontal cortex is extremely plastic and that the medial and orbital prefrontal regions frequently respond very differently to the same experience in the same brain and the rules that govern prefrontal plasticity appear to differ for those of other cortical regions.
PubMed: 25691857
DOI: 10.3389/fncel.2015.00015