Conversation analysis

notes for use in cognitive psychology – self-awareness and interactions with autistic children

Abstract

This article proposes an approximation of Cognitive Psychology studies to the Conversation Analysis methodology, offering converging theoretical-conceptual bases for its empirical application. Conversation Analysis is a qualitative research methodology focused on speech in interactions that uses linguistic, paralinguistic, and sociocultural data to clarify interactions that structure the human conversation. This exposition intended to present the historical and epistemological bases of Conversation Analysis, as well as the main theoretical aspects that influenced its origin. Its interface with research in Cognitive Psychology was also discussed, highlighting the use of this methodological tool in different contexts in which cognitive processes underlying conversationally mediated interactions are located. The theoretical models of conversation and the indicators that guide the analyst's action were presented, exemplifying how to transform raw research data into transcribed data that can be analyzed. Finally, a demonstration of how to empirically apply Conversation Analysis as a methodology in cognitive psychology studies in the area of self-awareness was offered, portraying the microgenesis of self-focusing processes in the social interaction of a child diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and a researcher receiving academic training in research.