Mind-wandering and task stimuli: Stimulus-dependent thoughts influence performance on memory tasks and are more often past- versus future-oriented

Maillet, David; Seli, Paul; Schacter, Daniel L.

doi:10.1016/j.concog.2017.04.014

Cited by 34 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…In relation to mind-wandering, Berntsen puts forward the view that research conducted on future-oriented mindwandering may not be tapping into spontaneous episodic future thinking because of a number of methodological and conceptual issues in terms of how mind-wandering has been defined and studied so far, and recent findings showing that a substantial amount of mind-wandering episodes are initiated intentionally. While we share Berntsen's concerns, there is ample evidence that the field of mind-wandering has entered into a new phase by introducing the distinctions between intentional vs. unintentional (e.g., Seli, Risko, Smilek, & Schacter, 2016) and stimulus-dependent vs. stimulus-independent mind-wandering (e.g., Maillet, Seli, & Schacter, 2017). With these distinctions and improved methodologies tapping into the precise content of thoughts (e.g., Irish et al, 2019;Warden et al, 2019), we believe that research on future-oriented mind-wandering and spontaneous episodic future thinking will have much in common in terms of conceptual understanding and experimental findings.…”

Section: The Present: Major Themes and Content Of The Special Issuementioning

confidence: 85%

Spontaneous future cognition: the past, present and future of an emerging topic

Cole

Kvavilashvili

2019

Psychological Research

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In this Editorial, we discuss the past, present and future of an emerging and fast-developing field-spontaneous future cognition. In tracking the past of this research, the trajectories of research on mind-wandering, episodic future thinking and prospective memory are briefly examined, and their relation with spontaneous future cognition demarcated. Three broad methodological approaches (questionnaire, naturalistic and laboratory) used to study spontaneous future thoughts are described, providing an overview of the field. The present state of this research is represented by a themed analysis of the articles included in this Special Issue. The breadth of studies (covering cognitive mechanisms, developmental stages and psychopathology) have already led to important insights, especially concerning the conditions in which spontaneous future thoughts most commonly arise and who may be predisposed to experiencing them. In the future, greater effort should focus on developing a theoretical account of spontaneous future cognition-this may increase our understanding of how and why spontaneous future thoughts occur. If future research in this area reflects the diversity and depth within this Special Issue, a flourishing of research on spontaneous future cognition will be on the horizon in years or perhaps decades to come.

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Section: The Present: Major Themes and Content Of The Special Issuementioning

confidence: 85%

Spontaneous future cognition: the past, present and future of an emerging topic

Cole

Kvavilashvili

2019

Psychological Research

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“…Several recent studies have shown that MW is a cue-dependent phenomenon, triggered by both internal and external events. Specifically, there is evidence that both task-irrelevant and task-relevant external stimuli [7][8][9][10][11]13] might act as triggers for MW episodes. In a recent study, Pelagatti et al [21] found a significantly larger pupil dilation following cue-words reported by participants as the trigger of MW compared to non-trigger words (with similar emotional content), and the pupil dilation appeared to increase over time.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to Klinger's current concerns hypothesis [4,5,6] "spontaneous thoughts are probably triggered by cues (meaningful stimuli) that may be external in the environment or internal in the person's own mental activity and that are associated with one or another of the individual's goals" [6, p. 216]. Over the last years, an increasing number of studies [7][8][9][10][11][12][13] have investigated the potential contribution of environmental stimuli (not only goal-related stimuli) to MW. The results converge in showing that both task-relevant [7][8][9] and task-irrelevant external stimuli [10,11,13] Running head: Timecourse of mind wandering 4 might indeed act as triggers for MW, challenging the traditional view of MW as completely stimulus-independent [14] and self-generated mental activity [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A closer look at the timecourse of mind wandering: pupillary responses and behaviour

Pelagatti

Binda

Vannucci

2019

Preprint

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AbstractMind wandering (MW) refers to the shift of attention away from a primary task and/or external environment towards thoughts unrelated to the task. Recent evidence has shown that pupillometry can be used as an objective marker of the onset and maintenance of externally-driven MW episodes. In the present study we aimed to further investigate pupillary changes associated with the onset and duration of self-reported MW episodes.We used a modified version of the joint behavioural-pupillometry paradigm we recently introduced. Participants were asked to perform a monotonous vigilance task which was intermixed with task-irrelevant cue-phrases (visually presented verbal cues); they were instructed to interrupt the task whenever a thought came to mind (self-caught method) and to indicate the trigger of their thought, if any. We found systematic pupil dilation after the presentation of verbal cues reported to have triggered MW, compared with other verbal cues presented during a supposedly on-task period (i.e., the period immediately following the resuming of the task after a self-caught interruption and MW report). These results confirm that pupil diameter is sensitive to the changes associated with the onset of MW and its unfolding over time.Moreover, by computing the latency between the trigger presentation and the task interruption (self-catch), we could also estimate the duration of MW episodes triggered by verbal cues. However, a high variability was found, implying very large inter-event variability, which could not be explained by any of the MW properties we acquired (including: temporal focus, specificity, emotional valence). Our behavioural and pupillometry findings stress the need for objective measures about the temporal unfolding of MW (while most studies focus on arbitrary time-window preceding self-reports of MW).

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“…Taken together, the findings appear to indicate that "environmental stimuli regularly trigger mind-wandering episodes" (p.56, Maillet et al, 2017), which calls for some reconceptualization of mind-wandering as purely stimulus-independent (cf. .…”

Section: Cdr-based Classification Used By Gyurkovics Et Al (2017) Amentioning

confidence: 94%

“…In addition, as pointed out by Maillet et al (2017), the cues may or may not be present at the time when the thought comes to mind. …”

Section: Footnotesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced mind-wandering in mild cognitive impairment: Testing the spontaneous retrieval deficit hypothesis.

Niedźwieńska¹,

Kvavilashvili²

2018

Neuropsychology

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Objective: Research on early cognitive markers of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is primarily focused on declarative episodic memory tests that involve deliberate and effortful/strategic processes at retrieval. The present study tested the Spontaneous Retrieval Deficit Hypothesis, which predicts that people with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI), who are at increased risk of developing AD, are particularly impaired on tasks that rely on spontaneous retrieval processes.Method: Twenty-three participants with aMCI and 25 healthy controls (HC) completed an easy vigilance task and thought probes (reporting what was going through their mind), which were categorized as spontaneous thoughts about the past (i.e., involuntary memories), current situation, and future (i.e., spontaneous prospection).Results: Participants with aMCI reported significantly fewer spontaneous thoughts or mindwandering than HC. This effect was driven by significantly fewer involuntary memories, while groups did not differ in the number of current and future thoughts. Conclusions: Findings provide strong support for the Spontaneous Retrieval DeficitHypothesis. Implications for research on mind-wandering and the default network, early cognitive markers of the disease, and our theoretical understanding of the nature of cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's disease are discussed.

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Mind-wandering and task stimuli: Stimulus-dependent thoughts influence performance on memory tasks and are more often past- versus future-oriented

Cited by 34 publications

References 49 publications

Spontaneous future cognition: the past, present and future of an emerging topic

Spontaneous future cognition: the past, present and future of an emerging topic

A closer look at the timecourse of mind wandering: pupillary responses and behaviour

Reduced mind-wandering in mild cognitive impairment: Testing the spontaneous retrieval deficit hypothesis.

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