The Experience Sampling Methods – Cognition Connect Network (ESM-CCN) addresses a key challenge in studying cognition in everyday life: the lack of a unified framework for defining and measuring cognition in ESM research. Currently, studies conceptualize and operationalize cognition in diverse ways, which makes comparisons difficult and limits progress in the field.

Our network brings together international experts from psychology, medicine, data science, and public health to develop a common framework that integrates different perspectives and methods. This framework will improve cross-study comparability, strengthen methodological rigor, and deepen our understanding of cognitive processes in real-world contexts.

To achieve this, the ESM-CCN pursues four main goals:

1. Mapping the field – providing a systematic overview of how cognition is currently conceptualized and measured in ESM studies.

2. Consensus building – developing guidelines and a theoretical definition of cognition in ESM through a Delphi process.

3. Collaboration – working jointly on publications, workshops, and future grant proposals that tackle additional challenges in this area.

4. Interdisciplinary exchange – connecting perspectives from different disciplines and institutions worldwide.

In the long term, the ESM-CCN aims to lay the groundwork for an international research network on cognition and ESM, potentially institutionalized through European or national funding initiatives.