Introspection

1
Introspection

• Do we have access to our mind?

2
Descartes ideas on conscious mind

• Characteristics of the mind
• 1. Our entire mental life is conscious.
• 2. Our consciousness is transparent to itself.
• 3. Our consciousness is a unified entity.
• 4. Our consciousness is responsible for our free
  actions.
• Yesterday especially about 3
• Mind of split brain patient not a unity
• Today mostly about 2 and 4
• Combination makes introspection very interesting
• Mind knows itself, and minds acts upon this
  knowledge
• Introspection gives insight into nature of mind
  and causes of behavior

3
Introspection and ideas

• Back to the Scientific revolution
• Aristotle
• Access to the world
• The world is as we experience it
• Nothing between us and the world
• We are always in the world
• We experience the world as it is
• We experience the mind as it is

4
The world as mystery

• The real world is hidden
• Is different from what we observe
• Mechanistic world view
• Motion, mass, size, form
• Mathematical description of the world
• Separating objective and subjective
  characteristics

5
No direct access to the world

• Primary qualities are part of the world
• Secondary qualities are part of the mind
• Rationalism and Empiricism
• Both united on this
• Only partial correspondence between world and
  mind
• What do we have knowledge of
• Our sense experiences empiricism
• Our thoughts rationalism
• The world becomes sensations and thoughts

6
Ideas

• We only know about perceptions/ sense experiences
• Locke
• We only know about thoughts
• Descartes
• Cartesian theatre (Dennet)
• The subject looks at the content of mind
• Homunculus
• Introspection as the eye inside
• Mind as spatial metaphor we look around in the
  space of our mind and see images of reality

7
Kant

• Strengthening of idealist tendencies
• Mind imposes order on the universe
• We cannot know the world as it is, only as it
  appears to us through perceptual schemata and
  categories
• Space, time, quantity, quality, cause
• Transcendental idealism
• No scientific knowledge possible of mind
• Introspection changes the process
• You cannot think and think about thinking at the
  same time
• Challenge for psychology Wundt

8
Wundt and introspection

• Physiological psychology
• Introspection under control of experimental
  stimuli
• We can both experience and report on experience
  if there is a
• Link between stimulus and report
• Stimulus error
• Mental atomism
• Simple mental functions

9
Limit to introspection

• Thinking, and thinking about the same impossible
• Hence
• Higher functions cannot be studied experimentally
• Must be studies in the products of the mind
• Art, culture, philosophy, literature
• Voelkerpsychologie cultural anthropology
• Mental atomism weak spot
• Assumes synthesis of analytic parts, but
• Holism of perception and thought

10
Introspection after Wundt

• Gestalt psychology
• Introspection to find mental atoms is nonsense
• Unity of perception
• Active, but non-conscious processes
• Continuation
• Rabbit-Duck

11
Thought psychology

• Wurzburger school
• Germany 1890 till 1930
• Kuelpe, Selz
• Introspection on complex tasks
• Girgensohn
• Assignment Right to vote Two main kinds.
• Answer after less than 6 seconds
• direct and indirect
• Then retrospective analysis of thought process

12
Analysis

• Direct appeal on memory. Seeking for something
  well known is experienced completely different
  from cases where I have to look for an answer
  independently. In this case immediately I fathom
  that I know something, and I try to establish
  what I know. But also knowledge about the
  controversies on the right to vote during the
  last parliamentary session in Prussia shimmered
  before my mind. Apart from a vague orientation on
  this, there was something else present in my
  consciousness that to me seems to me to represent
  the object of this orientation. This, which
  represents the object of the orientation, has
  nothing to do with moods or feelings. Of this I
  am subjectively sure. There were no images
  present during this complete process, and as far
  as I can remember, there were also no words
  involved up till that moment

13
Decline of introspection

• Such research did introspection no good
• Rise of behaviorism
• Experimental research into behavior is object of
  psychology
• Introspection only leads to controversy and
  dissidence
• James Watson

14
James Watson

• There is no longer any guarantee that we all mean
  the same thing when we use the terms now current
  in psychology. I doubt if any one psychologist
  can draw up a set of statements describing what
  he means by sensation which will be agreed to by
  three other psychologists.
• I firmly believe that two hundred years from now,
  unless the introspective method is discarded,
  psychology will still be divided on the question
  as to whether auditory sensations have the
  quality of 'extension', whether intensity is an
  attribute which can be applied to color, whether
  there is a difference in 'texture' between image
  and sensation and upon many hundreds of others of
  like character.

15
Modern cognitive psychology

• Resurfacing of introspection
• Attention as a topic
• Thinking and problem solving
• Introspection widely used and often very fruitful
• Rotation problem good example
• However also grave dangers
• Research into problem solving
• Nine point problem
• Go into more detail

16
The problem

• Connect all the dots with maximum of 4 lines
• Difficulty is you have to go outside the matrix
  of points
• Most people find solution but may take time

17
The experiment

• Four groups receive sheet with specimens of
  problem
• Different instructions for the groups
• 1. No instruction. Just solve
• 2. No instruction, but afterwards asked how they
  solved the problem
• 3. Notified before that afterwards they will be
  asked to retrospectively report how they solved
  the problem
• 4. Instructed to think aloud while solving the
  problem
• Results
• On 3 dimensions
• Time used to solve problem
• Number of specimens used on sheet
• Number of words used in explanation

18
Group 1
Time to solve Number of specimens Number of
words Note only relative position!

• Low number of specimens used
• Relative brief time to solve
• Random strategy
• Trial and error

19
Group 2
Time to solve Number of specimens Number of words

• 1 and 2 comparable on time and number of
  specimens used
• Asking for description of thought process
  experienced as unfair
• No relation between retrospection and specimen
  sheet

20
Group 3
Time to solve Number of specimens Number of words

• Increase in time used
• Lower nr of specimens
• More words than group 2
• Clear relation between retrospection and use of
  specimen sheet
• Work more systematically than gr. 1 and 2

21
Group 4
Time to solve Number of specimens Number of words

• Strong increase on all dimensions more time,
  more specimens and more words
• Very systematic style of working
• No trial and error but methodical strategy to
  solve problem

22
Conclusions

• If we solve a problem we are not conscious on how
  we do it
• see group 2, angry when asked
• If we know we must give an account of our thought
  processes we think not only slower but also
  differently
• see relation between sheet and retrospection
• none in group 1 2, strong in group 3 4
• The instrument of introspection influences the
  object we want to measure
• Introsepction is a big thermometer used to
  measure the temperature of a small volume of
  fluid
• Therefore introspection is a dangerous tool in
  psychological research

23
Conclusions continued

• Our mind is not transparent to introspection
• Introspection creates another mind, not identical
  to the mind without introspection
• But things are even worse
• We often have no access to why we do things
• Introspection does not lay bare the causes of
  behavior
• Nisbett and Wilson on attribution

24
Helping behavior

• Bystander phenomenon
• Kitty Genovese
• The more people witness an emergency, the less
  likely it is that anyone will help
• Presence of others is cause of apathy among
  witnesses
• Interpretations
• Generalized knowledge
• Nobody helps so it is no emergency
• Why me?

25
Robust phenomenon

• On introspection people will never mention this
  true cause of apathy in an emergency
• They will cite all sorts of other reasons, prior
  theories they have
• Introspection will not give the true cause of
  action
• Mind is not transparent

26
Access to the mind?

• Do we have access to our mind?
• Do we know how we do things?
• Language
• I can speak, but do I know how I do it?
• Man is both master and slave
• Sometimes we accept slave status overwhelmed by
  emotions
• Not for thinking
• Cannot say Overwhelmed by thoughts
• Are we the victims or suspects of our actions?
• A victim is not responsible
• A suspect is
• Image of man in psychology