We perceive, experience, and understand the world according to our attitude. In this master’s
thesis, attitude is defined as the sum of top-down factors influencing experience. Attitude is
considered both a factor in the process of perception and experiencing and an essential constitutive
element of the perceptual or experiential outcome. Although an increasing number of theories
acknowledge the role of attitude, they do not yet provide methods for measuring it or
demonstrating how it can be made measurable—attitudes have not yet been operationalized. To
address this issue, we first identified models of perception and first-person approaches that
consider the role of attitude. We then compared these models, extracting recurring categories
frequently present across them. Finally, we examined whether any of the selected models offer
possibilities for operationalizing attitudes. The models were selected based on the following
inclusion criteria: the model includes attitude as an essential part of the perceptual or experiential
process and it explains this process holistically. Recurring categories included in the models were
as follows: typology of attitude, the ability to intentionally change one’s attitude, directing
attention as a factor of attitude, the possibility of measuring attitude, the applicability of the model
to first-person perspective, and the ability to determine the relationship between top-down (TD)
and bottom-up (BU) processing. It was found that the TD:BU processing ratio is one of the key
categories for operationalizing attitudes and can be determined in all selected models. This ratio
plays a significant role in translating theoretical findings into practical applications, such as
understanding the influence of demand characteristics on experience in laboratory settings. In
conclusion, we propose various types of meditation as methods for cultivating different kinds of
attitudes for research purposes and introduce a third-person paradigm to investigate differences
between relationship focused attitude (associated with top-down influences) and content focused
attitude (associated with bottom-up influences). Lastly, we offer guidelines for studying attitudes
from a first-person perspective.
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