An experience-sampling study of 124 undergraduates, pretested on complex memory-span tasks, examined the relation between working memory capacity (WMC) and the experience of mind wandering in daily life. Over 7 days, personal digital assistants signaled subjects eight times daily to report immediately whether their thoughts had wandered from their current activity, and to describe their psychological and physical context. WMC moderated the relation between mind wandering and activities' cognitive demand. During challenging activities requiring concentration and effort, higher-WMC subjects maintained on-task thoughts better, and mind-wandered less, than did lower-WMC subjects. The results were therefore consistent with theories of WMC emphasizing the role of executive attention and control processes in determining individual differences and their cognitive consequences.

The results support the construct validity of a multidimensional model of schizotypy and the ecological validity of the positive and negative schizotypy dimensions. ESM appears to be a promising method for examining the daily life experiences of schizotypic individuals.

Both clinical and subclinical depression are associated with social impairment; however, few studies have examined the impact of social contact in the daily lives of people with depressive symptoms. The current study used the experience-sampling methodology to examine associations between depressive symptoms, social contact, and daily life impairment in 197 young adults. Depressive symptoms were associated with increased isolation, negative affect, anhedonia, and physical symptoms, decreased positive affect, and social and cognitive impairment in daily life. For people with more depressive symptoms, being with social partners who were perceived as close was associated with greater decreases in negative affect, as well as increases in positive affect. Ironically, participants with depressive symptoms reported spending less time with people whom they perceived as close, minimizing the protective effects of socializing. These results suggest that people experiencing depressive symptoms may be especially sensitive to the nature of social interactions.Key Words: Depression, experience-sampling method, ecological momentary assessment.(J Nerv Ment Dis 2011;199: 403Y409) D epressive disorders are among the most common psychological diagnoses, with lifetime prevalence estimates ranging from 16% to 31% for women and 11% to 18% for men (American Psychological Association, 2004). A substantial body of research indicates that clinical and subclinical levels of depression are associated with impaired social functioning and decrements in perceived social support. For example, low self-reported social support is highly correlated with the onset and outcome of depressive episodes (Billings and Moos, 1984). This is especially problematic because perceived social support appears to be protective against stressful life events (Cohen and Wills, 1985) and, thus, those with depressive symptoms may be deprived of a powerful buffer against life stress. Deficits in social functioning correspond to the severity of depressive symptoms and may improve when depression remits (e.g., Airaksinen et al., 2006). Furthermore, cognitive-behavioral therapy is associated with improvements in depression that co-occur with improvements in social functioning (Scott et al., 2000). Not surprisingly, treatments for depression, such as Interpersonal Psychotherapy (e.g., Klerman et al., 1984), often focus on the expression and treatment of depression within the social environment.A growing body of literature suggests that people with clinical and subclinical depression may be sensitive to the quality and closeness of social interactions. A recent study of nondepressed undergraduates (Panzarella et al., 2006) found that people who received more adaptive inferential feedback (i.e., feedback in which friends and family reframe life events in a more adaptive or positive light) experienced improvements in depressive symptoms, even after controlling for the effects of general social support and stressful life events. For example, a person with depressio...

People possess an innate need to belong that drives social interactions. Aberrations in the need to belong, such as social anhedonia and social anxiety, provide a point of entry for examining this need. The current study used experience-sampling methodology to explore deviations in the need to belong in the daily lives of 245 undergraduates. Eight times daily for a week, personal digital assistants signaled subjects to complete questionnaires regarding affect, thoughts, and behaviors. As predicted, higher levels of social anhedonia were associated with increased time alone, greater preference for solitude, and lower positive affect. Higher social anxiety, in contrast, was associated with higher negative affect and was not associated with increased time alone. Furthermore, greater social anxiety was associated with greater self-consciousness and preference to be alone while interacting with unfamiliar people. Thus, deviations in the need to belong affect social functioning differently depending on whether this need is absent or thwarted.

Experience sampling research measures people’s thoughts, feelings, and actions in their everyday lives by repeatedly administering brief questionnaires throughout the day. Nonresponse—failing to respond to these daily life questionnaires—has been a vexing source of missing data. The present research examined person-level, day-level, and signal-level predictors of nonresponse. We analyzed data from a sample of 450 young adults who were signaled 8 times a day for 7 days. At the person level, nonresponse was higher for men and for people high in positive schizotypy, depressive symptoms, and hypomania. At the day level, nonresponse increased over the first few days of the study and then declined toward the end. At the signal level, time of day strongly predicted nonresponse. Lagged signal-level analyses examined how emotions and experiences at a prior signal prospectively predicted the likelihood of ignoring the next signal. Only one variable—feelings of enthusiasm—had a significant lagged effect, which suggests that within-day experiences are not major sources of nonresponse. For the most part, the day of the study and the time of day had the most salient effects. Understanding the predictors of missing data allows researchers to implement methods to increase compliance and to handle missing data more effectively by including predictors of nonresponse.