U-TET
U-TET
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Unfolding human experience through Temporal Experience Tracing
Unfolding human experience through Temporal Experience Tracing
ABOUT THE PROJECT
ABOUT THE PROJECT
The first-person dimension of experience is a key element in understanding human behavior, yet most existing evaluations rely on self-report measures that overlook the temporal dimension and, consequently, the dynamic nature of experiences. Temporal Experience Tracing (TET) has recently emerged as a promising approach, allowing individuals to retrospectively trace their subjective experiences along continuous temporal dimensions and generating dense time-series data rather than isolated snapshots. Although TET has shown promising results across domains such as meditation and cognitive control tasks, no comprehensive validation study has yet analyzed its contributions and limitations. U-TET aims to provide the first systematic validation of TET, establishing it as a reliable tool for capturing the temporal dynamics of subjective experience in research contexts.
Conducting a comprehensive validation study of TET using subjective perceptions of exertion during physical exercise.
Extending the validation to two additional domains: sleep (drowsiness) and pain.
Aligning continuous subjective measures with physiological and behavioral data.
Delivering a validated, openly accessible tool for temporal experience tracing.
Why now?
Most empirical research continues to rely on scales that ask participants for a single global score of an entire dynamic experience, or on questionnaires that ultimately collapse the richness of experience into an averaged value. As a result, valuable temporal information is systematically lost, constraining both theoretical progress and clinical applications. TET has shown early promise in capturing recurrent experiential states in meditation, psychedelic-like clusters in breathwork and dynamic fluctuations in effort during cognitive control tasks, but its validity as a scientific tool has never been systematically tested.
What for?
The project will deliver a validated instrument for integrating subjective experience data with physiological and behavioral measures, directly applicable across experimental psychology, cognitive neuroscience and related disciplines. Its impact extends to applied and clinical contexts where subjective reports are indispensable, including the assessment of sleep, pain and related conditions, offering CIMCYC a tangible, openly accessible methodological tool.
What's novel?
U-TET provides the first rigorous validation of TET as a methodology, moving it from a promising exploratory approach to a robust scientific tool. It uniquely combines expertise from psychometric validation studies and cognitive neuroscience to test TET across three distinct domains, exercise, sleep and pain, using physiological benchmarks (heart rate, EEG, electrodermal activity) alongside structured qualitative interviews to establish comprehensive evidence of validity.
Where?
The project is led by Isabel Benítez Baena (Modelling and Measurement of Human Behavior, HUM624) and Luis Fernando Ciria Pérez (Human Brain & Cognition, HUM957) from CIMCYC María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence (University of Granada), with international collaboration from Tristan Bekinschtein (University of Cambridge) and Cornelia Neuert (GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Mannheim).
INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH
INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH
This project unites perspectives from psychometric validation studies and cognitive neuroscience to tackle a challenge that neither field could solve alone: establishing TET as a rigorously validated scientific tool.
Psychometric Validation
Lead the methodological framework for evaluating the validity of TET, drawing on response processes, relationships with other variables and testing consequences.
Neuroscience of Physiological Transitions
Contribute expertise in the neuroscience of arousal, exercise and sleep, grounding the validation studies in well-established physiological markers such as EEG and heart rate.
Phenomenology & Pain Research
Provide expertise at the intersection of neuroscience, phenomenology and pain research, supporting the extension of TET to the tonic pain domain.
Survey Methodology & Pretesting
Ensure alignment with state-of-the-art methodological and conceptual advances in survey design and pretesting.
Physical Effort & Eye-Tracking Methodologies
Contribute expertise in physical effort and fatigue research and specialized knowledge in eye-tracking methodologies for validation studies.
CONTACT
CONTACT
Isabel Benítez Baena. E-mail: ibenitez@ugr.es
Luis Fernando Ciria Pérez. E-mail: lciria@ugr.es
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