Response: Commentary: Can Inner Experience Be Apprehended in High Fidelity? Examining Brain Activation and Experience from Multiple Perspectives

El yo del discurso y la reflexión: formas y funciones de la primera persona

“…Un grupo de investigadores utilizaron la estrategia de examinar la activación cerebral durante momentos no especificados (Hurlburt et al, 2017). Para ello enviaron un pitido a volutarios sometidos a una resonancia magnética del cerebro y registraron la actividad cerebral en esos momentos.…”

Commentary: Can Inner Experience Be Apprehended in High Fidelity? Examining Brain Activation and Experience from Multiple Perspectives

“…For description , Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES) is a disciplined iterative procedure that requires careful training (Hurlburt, 2009 ; Hurlburt and Heavey, 2015 ; Lapping-Carr and Heavey, 2017 ). Unlike “directly apprehended” inner experience (Hurlburt et al, 2017a , p. 3), “DES-apprehended experience” (Hurlburt et al, 2017b , p. 3) is not pristine, but aspires to obtain a faithful description. As evidence for the fidelity of DES reports, Hurlburt et al ( 2017a ) summarize evidence that brain activation differ across inner experiences.…”

“…This is potentially confusing. Discussing DES, Hurlburt et al ( 2017b , p. 3) state that they used apprehension to imply “proximity, involvement, intervention,” which recognizes that the description cannot perfectly represent the original experience. Perhaps they should avoid “apprehend” when referring to the original experience.…”

“…For theory , Hurlburt and Akhter ( 2008 ) propose a division of labor between people who describe pristine inner experiences and people who theorize about them, because investigators of introspection tangled method and explanation in their search for the elements underlying experience (Hurlburt et al, 2017a ). Thus, Hurlburt et al ( 2017b , p.2) “bracketed away” theoretical questions, particularly how pristine inner experiences are caused and whether they have effects. Given their careful efforts to obtain faithful records of inner experience, Hurlburt and colleagues should test theoretical issues.…”

“…However, Hurlburt and colleagues do not deny “causative significance” of pristine inner experience (Hurlburt et al, 2017b ). Indeed, Hurlburt and Heavey ( 2006 ) speculative relationships are “based on the belief that people's patterns of inner experience could influence (and be influenced by) how they encounter the world” (p. 233).…”