Deliberate Mind Wandering Research Articles

Time in suspense: investigating boredom and related states in a virtual waiting room

ABSTRACT We studied the role of time in the experience of boredom and its relationship with various psychological states using virtual reality. Sixty-six participants visited nine virtual waiting rooms and evaluated their perception of time and psychological experiences, including boredom, exhaustion, restlessness, amotivation, frustration, anger, unhappiness, spontaneous and deliberate mind-wandering, fantasy, and absorption. Results confirmed the relationship between boredom and time perception, showing that the higher the levels of boredom, the slower time seems to pass. However, manipulating time-related information via a slower/faster ticking clock did not affect boredom. We also found that boredom increased as participants progressed through the nine virtual rooms, and its affective characterisation over time remained stable, while its cognitive characterisation fluctuated. While boredom was consistently associated with exhaustion, restlessness, amotivation, and frustration, its relationship with fantasy, absorption, spontaneous mind-wandering and deliberate mind-wandering, evolved over time. These findings provide novel insights into the intricate and differentiated cognitive and affective consequences of being bored.

Longitudinal Associations between Metacognition and Spontaneous and Deliberate Mind Wandering During Early Adolescence.

Although metacognition plays a pivotal role in theoretical accounts of mind wandering, their longitudinal relationships have not yet been investigated during the important developmental period of early adolescence. This study aimed to examine the developmental trajectories of spontaneous and deliberate mind wandering and the dynamic associations between metacognition and two types of mind wandering in early adolescence. A sample of 4302 Chinese students beginning in Grade 4 (47.4% female; initial Mage = 9.84, SDage = 0.47) completed questionnaires on five occasions over 2.5 years. The results showed that deliberate mind wandering, but not spontaneous mind wandering, gradually increased from Grade 4 to Grade 6. Metacognition was negatively related to spontaneous mind wandering but positively related to deliberate mind wandering. These findings provide empirical evidence for theoretical viewpoints from both individual differences and developmental perspectives.

Force modulation: A behavioural marker of mind-wandering.

It is known that the Metronome Response Task (MRT)-one of the most used mind-wandering sampling paradigms, struggles to differentiate between spontaneous mind-wandering (wherein one's attention is uncontrollably shifted away from the task at hand) and deliberate mind-wandering (wherein one's attention is purposefully shifted away). Thus, we endeavoured to design and test a new mind-wandering measure, called the In Sync Task (IST), that can achieve such differentiation more readily. Unlike the MRT, which involves having participants click in sync (using a mouse) with rhythmically presented, auditory monotones, the IST requires participants to (1) click in sync with tone triplets that increase incrementally in loudness and (2) modulate their clicking force to the presented tone's loudness. Here, we measured (1) participants' variabilities in their rhythmic response times (as is the MRT) and (2) their consistency in appropriately modulating their clicking force. Across two separate samples of university students (n = 119 and n = 121) collected between June 2022 to February 2023, we showed performance differences between the mind-wandering subtypes. Specifically, participants were better able to modulate their clicking force during epochs of spontaneous, compared with deliberate, mind-wandering, whereas the MRT was unable to differentiate between these conditions. In sum, we show that there appear to be greater costs to performance when one deliberately mind-wanders, as opposed to spontaneously mind-wandering.

Childhood adversity and mind wandering: the mediating role of cognitive flexibility and habitual tendencies

ABSTRACT Background: Initial evidence proposes that exposure to childhood adversity may induce avoidance or withdrawal behaviour. However, it remains unclear whether childhood adversity results in avoidance from externally directed thinking to both deliberate and spontaneous mind wandering, i.e. intentionally or unintentionally diverting attention from ongoing task to task-independent thoughts. Objective: To assess the associations between childhood adversity, and mind wandering, and to evaluate the mediating roles of cognitive flexibility, and habit tendencies. Methods: A total of 601 Chinese subjects (378 females, M age = 19.37) participated in the current study. The participants completed a series of questionnaires including demographics, childhood maltreatment, cognitive flexibility, habitual tendencies, and mind wandering. Results: Hierarchical regression analyses showed childhood adversity, the control facet of cognitive flexibility, and the automaticity facet of habitual tendencies had significant contributions to deliberate mind wandering (β = 0.10, β = −0.40, and β = 0.06) and spontaneous mind wandering (β = 0.09, β = −0.28, and β = 0.07). Serial mediation analyses revealed that the control and automaticity partially mediated associations between childhood adversity and mind wandering (deliberate mind wandering: 95% CIs = [0.037 0.078], and spontaneous mind wandering: 95% CIs = [0.023, 0.062]). Conclusions: The findings underscore the pivotal role of mediators in delineating the relationship between childhood adversity and mind wandering in everyday life. Interventions geared toward augmenting the control component of cognitive flexibility and regulating the automatic component of habitual tendencies show the potential to ameliorate the propensity of individuals affected by childhood adversity to disengage cognitively from the present moment.

Left superior parietal lobe mediates the link between spontaneous mind-wandering tendency and task-switching performance

While increasing studies have documented the link between mind wandering and task switching, less is known about which brain regions mediate this relationship. Using the MPI-Leipzig Mind-Brain-Body dataset (N = 173), we investigated the association between trait-level tendencies of mind wandering, task-switching performance, structural connectivity, and resting-state functional connectivity. At the behavioral level, we found that higher spontaneous mind-wandering trait scores were associated with shorter reaction times on both repeat and switch trials. The whole brain cortical thickness analysis revealed a strong mediating role of the left superior parietal lobe, which is part of the dorsal attention network, in the link between spontaneous mind-wandering tendency and task-switching performance. The resting-state functional connectivity analysis further demonstrated that this association was partly mediated by the negative dorsal attention network-default mode network functional connectivity. No significant mediating effects were found for deliberate mind-wandering tendency. Overall, the findings highlight the pivotal role of the left superior parietal lobe in activating new mental set during mind-wandering and task-switching processes, providing another evidence in favor of a role for switching in mind wandering.

Mind-Wandering and Its Relationship With Psychological Wellbeing and Obsessive-Compulsive Symptomatology in the Context of Covid-19.

Mind-wandering (MW) as a research topic has received considerable attention over the last several decades. The recent differentiation between spontaneous and deliberate MW has suggested a particular effect of the former on psychopathology; in that increased spontaneous MW may precede mental illness. The present study sought to explore MW as a potential contributing factor to poor mental health in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. More specifically, we sought to determine firstly, whether the effects of MW frequency, type and content on subjective psychological wellbeing was consistent with previous findings after controlling for the impacts of Covid-related stress. Secondly, previous research has demonstrated an effect of both Covid-stress and spontaneous MW on the experience of obsessive-compulsive symptomatology (OCS), and so the present study explored this relationship further by assessing whether Covid-stress mediated the relationship between spontaneous MW and OCS. Participants completed measures of MW, OCS and psychological wellbeing through an online questionnaire. The results indicated that increased spontaneous MW was indicative of both poorer subjective psychological wellbeing and OCS, with Covid-stress partially mediating the relationship between spontaneous MW and OCS. Our findings provide further support for the adverse effect of unintentional MW on psychological wellbeing, as well as for the differentiation between both forms of the cognitive phenomenon. Additionally, they provide an important insight into one of the factors that may have preceded poor mental health among the Irish population during Covid-19. Future research may build upon the present study by exploring similar relationships among clinical populations.

Examining the relation between oral contraceptive use and attentional engagement in everyday life.

Oral contraceptives (OCs) used by women worldwide include artificial estradiol and progesterone, which can attach to receptors in the brain and potentially influence cognition. In the present studies, we examined the relation between OC use and self-reported everyday attention. We collected trait-level measures of mind wandering, attention-related errors, and attention lapses in undergraduate women using OCs (Study 1: OC group N = 471, Study 2: OC group N = 246) and naturally cycling women not using any form of hormonal contraceptives (Study 1: Non-OC group N = 1,330, Study 2: Non-OC group N = 929). In Study 1, we found that women using OCs reported significantly less spontaneous and deliberate mind wandering than naturally cycling women and no differences between groups on attention-related errors and attention lapses. In Study 2, our findings indicated no significant differences between groups on any of our attention measures. Regression analyses controlling for depression symptoms and semester of data collection found that OC use did predict unique additional variance on some attention measures, but these effects were small and unreliable across the two studies. Taken together, our data suggests there is little evidence that OC use is related to differences in attentional engagement in everyday life.

What's behind deliberation? The effect of task-related mind-wandering on post-incubation creativity.

Previous studies have already suggested that the deliberate nature of Mind-Wandering (MW) is critical for promoting creative performance. However, the deliberate nature of MW may be mixed up with task-relatedness. Whether the deliberate nature or task-relatedness of MW is responsible for such positive influence remains unclear. The present study tried to address this issue by investigating the influence of deliberate MW (MW-d) and task-related MW (MW-r) on post-incubation creative performance. Our result showed that MW-d is positively correlated with MW-r and spontaneous MW (MW-s) is highly positively correlated with task-unrelated MW (MW-u). Meanwhile, after controlling the possible confounding variables (i.e., the pre-incubation creative performance, the performance during distraction task, and motivation on creative ideation), both MW-d and MW-r predicted participants' AUT performance after incubation. However, the prediction model based on MW-r was stable while the MW-d-based prediction model was not. These findings indicate that the task-relatedness of MW, instead of its deliberate nature, might have a positive influence on subsequent creative performance.

Examining the relation between mind wandering and unhealthy eating behaviours

In the present study, we explored how individual differences in the tendency to mind-wander are related to unhealthy eating behaviours (i.e., eating habits and eating-disorder symptoms). Given that eating-disorders are associated with inhibition (extreme control) and impulsivity (a lack of control), we were interested in how unhealthy eating behaviours might relate to both spontaneous mind-wandering, which is often construed as a failure of executive control, and deliberate mind-wandering, which is thought to occur via controlled processes. To ensure that any observed relations were not driven by self-control, we also measured and statistically controlled for this variable. In a large, non-clinical sample (N = 2328), regression analyses predicting each of the eating measures with self-control, spontaneous mind-wandering, and deliberate mind-wandering revealed that self-control and spontaneous mind-wandering were significantly positively predictive of unhealthy eating behaviours, whereas deliberate mind-wandering did not significantly predict these measures. These findings suggest that spontaneous, but not deliberate, mind-wandering has a robust unique relation with unhealthy eating behaviours, even when controlling for self-control.

A-294 Mind-Wandering in Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Exploratory Multi-Case Study

Abstract Objective: Executive dysfunction has become a recent topic of interest in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) due to proposed contributions to functional impairments and decreased quality of life. Executive function in ASD is not conclusive; thus, a novel performance measure to explore a constellation of executive function subsets is mind-wandering. This multi-case study aimed to explore mind-wandering through the executive failure hypothesis and the meta-awareness hypothesis with autistic teens and young adults. Methods: Six autistic individuals with intact intellectual functioning were extensively investigated using a sustained attention task, thought probes, open-ended interviews, and retrospective trait questionnaires. Inclusion criteria included an FSIQ > 80 on either the WISC-V or WAIS-IV. Executive function was measured using the DKEFS Verbal Fluency subtest. Retrospective trait questionnaires included: Metacognitions Questionnaire-30, Spontaneous and Deliberate Mind-Wandering Scales, and Mind Excessively Wandering Scale. Results: Responses revealed that the sampled autistic individuals engaged in a variety of task-related, task-unrelated, intentional, unintentional, directed, and undirected mind-wandering events, both with and without awareness. Notably, autistic individuals in this sample reported engaging in intentional mind-wandering without awareness as well as unintentional mind-wandering despite exceptional executive functioning, raising questions about the validity of the executive failure and meta-awareness hypotheses in ASD. Conclusion: Overall, despite underlying difficulties in executive control and meta-awareness, autistic individuals in this multi-case study successfully reported on their own experience of thought and were able to exert control over their own thinking. As such, future research should further explore how extent of mind-wandering ability may relate to cognitive-based interventions as well as diagnostic differentials within ASD.

Educating Through Attentional States of Consciousness, an Effective Way to Develop Creative Potential?

Researchers have recently turned their focus to a specific area: the links between altered states of consciousness and creativity. A spectrum of attentional states of consciousness exists, from hypnagogia and mind wandering to mindfulness and flow. These attentional states of consciousness are present during a variety of activities (e.g., sports, music, painting, writing, video games, theater, and meditation) as well as in situations characterized by boredom. They are also present in many professional fields and practices (e.g., education and teaching). Moreover, researchers and educators focus sometimes on only one state of consciousness (such as mind wandering) or only on attention, and do not question relationships with others (such as mindfulness or flow) or the links with intention, the different levels of consciousness involved and the changes in perception of time, self and space. Additionally, as we know that a state of consciousness rarely occurs alone or that it can have two forms (such as spontaneous and deliberate mind wandering), we propose a global approach allowing to grasp the stakes and perspectives of what we call attentional states of consciousness. Thus, to our knowledge, this is the first theoretical review highlighting the historical, empirical, theorical and conceptual relationships between creativity, attention, mind wandering, mindfulness and flow by offering concrete and empirical avenues and bases for reflection about educating for creativity and developing creative potential.

On the relation between mind wandering, PTSD symptomology, and self-control

Here we examined the association between mind wandering, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomology, and self-control. In a large undergraduate sample (N = 5,387), we assessed trait-levels of spontaneous and deliberate mind wandering, self-control, and PTSD symptomology. Results indicated that, while PTSD symptomology was uniquely positively associated with spontaneous mind wandering, it was negatively associated with deliberate mind wandering and self-control. These findings suggest that the mechanism(s) underlying everyday mind wandering may also underlie PTSD symptomology and traumatic intrusions. Moreover, the unique negative association between PTSD symptomatology and self-control suggests that PTSD is characterized not only by impairments in inhibiting unwanted thoughts (as indexed by mind wandering), but also by impairments in inhibiting other unwanted behaviors.

A time to wander: exploring associations between components of circadian functioning, mind wandering typology, and time-of-day

ABSTRACT Eveningness has previously been associated with more frequent mind wandering (MW). The current study re-investigated this association for components of circadian functioning, and MW typology. Questionnaire measures of Morning Affect, Eveningness, and (amplitude) Distinctness, deliberate and spontaneous MW, problem-solving daydreams, sleep quality, personality, affect, and life satisfaction were completed by 265 university students (aged 18–33, mean = 20.78), who also reported the peak time for daily MW and problem-solving daydreams. Spontaneous MW correlated with low Morning Affect and stronger Distinctness; these all correlated with poor sleep quality, less conscientiousness, less positive affect, less life satisfaction, more neuroticism, and more negative affect. Problem-solving daydreams positively correlated with Morning Affect. Significant mediators between morningness-eveningness and spontaneous MW were sleep quality, positive affect, and conscientiousness, which were also significant with Morning Affect as the predictor for spontaneous MW; sleep quality and positive affect were significant with Distinctness as the predictor for spontaneous MW. Exploratory path analysis indicated inter-relationships between Eveningness, Morning Affect, subjective sleep quality, conscientiousness, spontaneous MW, and negative affect. Spontaneous and deliberate MW showed some evidence of peak frequency at the non-preferred time-of-day. These results indicate that components of circadian functioning have varying relationships with different types of mind wandering/daydreaming.

Deliberate and spontaneous mind wandering in Chinese students: Associations with mindfulness, affect, personality, and life satisfaction

Distinguishing between deliberate and spontaneous mind wandering (MW) allows for exploration of unique associations with each form of MW. The current study developed Chinese translations of the Mind Wandering: Deliberate (MW-D) and Mind Wandering: Spontaneous (MW-S) scales, and associations with mindfulness, positive and negative affect, personality, and life satisfaction were investigated. A sample of 261 Chinese university students completed the questionnaire survey. Exploratory factor analysis of the Chinese MW-D/MW-S scales showed all items loading strongly on the expected scale, and there was good internal consistency. Consistent with previous findings, spontaneous MW was more strongly (negatively) associated with mindfulness (acting with awareness), and (positively) with negative affect, while deliberate MW was more strongly associated with openness. Furthermore, spontaneous MW was more strongly associated (negatively) with agreeableness and positive affect. Both deliberate and spontaneous MW were negatively correlated with conscientiousness. Mindfulness was a significant mediator in the relationship between spontaneous MW and negative affect, but it was not significant in the relationship between deliberate MW and negative affect after controlling for spontaneous MW. These results indicate that the Chinese MW-S/MW-D scales may be useful tools in research investigating correlates of spontaneous and deliberate mind wandering.

Linking Phubbing Behavior to Self-Reported Attentional Failures and Media Multitasking

Phubbing, or using a phone to snub another person, has been investigated through social and personality frameworks. Phubbing involves attending to and performing competing tasks, implying the involvement of attentional abilities. Yet, past research has not yet used a cognitive framework to establish a link between phubbing and attention. Using self-report data from a large online sample, we explored the associations between phubbing and everyday attentional failures. Phubbing was associated with difficulties in attentional shifting and distractibility, frequent attentional lapses, spontaneous and deliberate mind wandering, and attention-related cognitive errors. When examining these attention variables alongside several psychosocial and personality variables, attention-related cognitive errors acted as the biggest predictor of phubbing behavior. Phubbing was also positively correlated with media multitasking, which is a conceptually similar yet distinct technology use behavior. The results suggest that perceived everyday attentional failures are strongly associated with, and to an extent can predict, phubbing behavior, even more so than some social and personality variables. Technology has incorporated itself as a necessity, or at the very least a favored convenience, in most people’s lives. Characterizing technology multitasking behaviors from a variety of frameworks can help us better understand who is engaging in these behaviors and why.

Mindfulness as a Mediator Between Mind-Wandering and Creative Abilities

In this study, the integrated roles of mind wandering (MW) and mindfulness on creative thinking were explored even though these have been regarded previously as separate and antithetical constructs. the current study attempted to refute this notion that mindfulness sit on one end of a spectrum apart from which mind-wandering sits opposite. Instead, it argued that mind-wandering is a core human state, and that healthy human functioning sits in the balance between MW and mindfulness. <i>Objective:</i> The study hypothesized that mindfulness mediates the relationship between MW and creative abilities (fluency, flexibility, originality and maintenance of direction). In particular, MW was analyzed in the light of a recent approach that posits a differentiation between deliberate and spontaneous MW. Mindfulness was analyzed by means of distinguishing its five different constitutional dimensions: observing, acting with awareness, describing, non-reactivity, and non-judging. <i>Materials and methods</i>: The participants comprised 321 undergraduate students aged between 18 and 23 years and enrolled at Cairo and Helwan universities in Egypt. The participants completed deliberate and spontaneous MW questionnaires, a mindfulness questionnaire, and subscales from the Arabic version of Guilford’s creative thinking battery and Torrance’s creative thinking battery. <i>Results:</i> The results revealed that mindfulness partially mediates the relationship between deliberate MW and creative abilities—namely, verbal and figural fluency, verbal flexibility, and maintenance of direction—whereas it completely mediates the relationship between deliberate MW and figural flexibility. However, mindfulness did not mediate the relationship between spontaneous MW and creative abilities.

Mind wandering: Tracking perceptual decoupling, mental improvisation, and mental navigation.

Background: Mind wandering is a prevalent phenomenon. However, the concept of mind wandering is associated with distinct and often orthogonal concepts, and researchers are still debating the best strategies to gain access to mind-wandering processes. Nonetheless, there is a progressive acknowledgment that mind wandering is a multidimensional and heterogeneous construct. We argue that to fully understand mind wandering, we need to look at dimensions assessing the process (i.e., perceptual decoupling), dynamics (i.e., mental improvisation), and content (i.e., mental navigation). Objective: The objective of this study was to develop a self-report measure of mind wandering-the Mind Wandering Inventory (MWI)-to capture the heterogeneity of mind wandering in terms of process, dynamic, and content components. Method: Five language versions of the MWI were administered to an international sample of 1,162 individuals. Results: Results showed that the MWI had good levels of internal consistency. In terms of internal structure, we found a first factor to index perceptual decoupling, a second to index mental improvisation, and a third to index mental navigation. Additionally, a study of concurrent validity with Spontaneous and Deliberate Mind Wandering scales suggested that MWI has significant correlations with previous mind-wandering scales and that factors 1 (perceptual decoupling) and 2 (mental improvisation) seemed to be more closely associated with spontaneous than deliberate mind wandering. Finally, individuals coming from sciences major background reported increased levels of mind wandering when compared with participants from both health, social and human sciences background.

Using deliberate mind-wandering to escape negative mood states: Implications for gambling to escape

Background and aims: Slot machines are a pervasive form of gambling in North America. Some gamblers describe entering “the slot machine zone”—a complete immersion into slots play to the exclusion of all else. Methods: We assessed 111 gamblers for mindfulness (using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS)), gambling problems (using the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI)), depressive symptoms (using the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale), and boredom proneness (using the Boredom Proneness Scale). In a counterbalanced order, participants played a slot machine simulator and completed an auditory vigilance task. During each task, participants were interrupted with thought probes to assess whether they were: on-task, spontaneously mind-wandering, or deliberately mind-wandering. After completing each task, we retrospectively assessed flow and affect. Compared to the more exciting slots play, we propose that gamblers may use deliberate mind-wandering as a maladaptive means to regulate affect during a repetitive vigilance task. Results: Our key results were that gamblers reported greater negative affect following the vigilance task (when compared to slots) and greater positive affect following slots play (when compared to the vigilance task). We also found that those who scored higher in problem gambling were more likely to use deliberate mind-wandering as a means to cope with negative affect during the vigilance task. Using hierarchical multiple regression, we found that the number of “deliberately mind-wandering” responses accounted for unique variance when predicting problem gambling severity (over and above depression, mindfulness, and boredom proneness). Conclusions: These assessments highlight a potential coping mechanism used by problem gamblers in order to deal with negative affect.

Using deliberate mind-wandering to escape negative mood states: Implications for gambling to escape.

Slot machines are a pervasive form of gambling in North America. Some gamblers describe entering "the slot machine zone"-a complete immersion into slots play to the exclusion of all else. We assessed 111 gamblers for mindfulness (using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS)), gambling problems (using the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI)), depressive symptoms (using the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale), and boredom proneness (using the Boredom Proneness Scale). In a counterbalanced order, participants played a slot machine simulator and completed an auditory vigilance task. During each task, participants were interrupted with thought probes to assess whether they were: on-task, spontaneously mind-wandering, or deliberately mind-wandering. After completing each task, we retrospectively assessed flow and affect. Compared to the more exciting slots play, we propose that gamblers may use deliberate mind-wandering as a maladaptive means to regulate affect during a repetitive vigilance task. Our key results were that gamblers reported greater negative affect following the vigilance task (when compared to slots) and greater positive affect following slots play (when compared to the vigilance task). We also found that those who scored higher in problem gambling were more likely to use deliberate mind-wandering as a means to cope with negative affect during the vigilance task. Using hierarchical multiple regression, we found that the number of "deliberately mind-wandering" responses accounted for unique variance when predicting problem gambling severity (over and above depression, mindfulness, and boredom proneness). These assessments highlight a potential coping mechanism used by problem gamblers in order to deal with negative affect.

A Personality Trait-Based Network of Boredom, Spontaneous and Deliberate Mind-Wandering.

This article reports the translation into German and validation of two self-report measures of mind-wandering and boredom (the Spontaneous and Deliberate Mind-Wandering Scales and the Short Boredom Proneness Scale). Confirmatory factor analyses provided support for the original conceptualization of the constructs. To evaluate measurement invariance across samples, data were collected in a German-speaking sample (n = 418) and an English-speaking sample (n = 364). The results indicated weak measurement invariance. To explore the interplay between mind-wandering and boredom, we performed an exploratory graph analysis in the entire sample (N = 782), which revealed the structure of relationships between boredom and the two facets of mind-wandering. The results are discussed in the context of theoretical accounts of boredom and mind-wandering.