Mind-wandering: Phenomenology and function as assessed with a novel experience sampling method
Research Highlights
► Mind-wandering and external distractions similarly impair task performance. ► Most mind-wandering episodes are oriented toward the future. ► Directing attention to one’s personal goals increases this prospective bias. ► An important function of mind-wandering is to plan for the future.
Introduction
An important feature of the human mind resides in its propensity to spontaneously generate thoughts when some of its resources are left idle (Antrobus et al., 1970, Christoff et al., 2008, Giambra, 1995, Klinger, 1990, Klinger, 2009, Pope and Singer, 1978, Scerbo et al., 2005, Singer, 2003, Smallwood, 2009, Smallwood and Schooler, 2006). For instance, when performing boring or redundant activities, it is relatively frequent that our mind drifts away from the current task and wanders towards memories, future plans, personal concerns and other thoughts whose content is not the direct reflection of our immediate stimulus environment. The core characteristic of such thoughts, generally labeled as mind-wandering (Smallwood, 2009, Smallwood and Schooler, 2006) or daydreams (Klinger, 1990, Singer, 1975), is that their content is both decoupled from stimuli present in the current environment (i.e., they are stimulus-independent; Antrobus, 1968, Teasdale et al., 1995, Teasdale et al., 1993) and unrelated to the activity being carried out at the time of their occurrence (i.e., they are task-unrelated; Giambra, 1989, Giambra, 1995, Scerbo et al., 2005). They can therefore be broadly defined as “stimulus-independent and task-unrelated thoughts” (abbreviated here as SITUTs).
Research suggests that SITUTs are concomitant with almost every kind of activity, occurring (albeit with reduced frequency) even when highly resource consuming tasks are performed (Antrobus et al., 1970, Smallwood et al., 2007) and representing on average between 10% and 30% of our daily thinking time (Kane et al., 2007, Klinger, 1990). It has been proposed that SITUTs depend, at least in part, on the same cognitive resources as (and thus compete with) task-related processing, as they generally impair performance on the task being carried out at the moment of their appearance (Antrobus et al., 1970, Smallwood, 2009, Smallwood, 2010, Smallwood et al., 2007, Smallwood and Schooler, 2006). Mind-wandering has, for instance, been linked to decreased text comprehension (Schooler et al., 2004, Smallwood, McSpadden and Schooler, 2008) and to higher variability of reaction times and increased number of errors in Go/No-Go tasks (McVay & Kane, 2009). However, the results of many studies are still debated and may be subject to problems of interpretation because of the specific methods used to assess the occurrence of mind-wandering (e.g., Christoff et al., 2009, Gilbert et al., 2007, Mason et al., 2007a, Mason et al., 2007b). In this study, we present and validate a novel experience sampling method that assesses the occurrence mind-wandering episodes in a more rigorous way, and use this new method to further investigate the function and phenomenology of SITUTs.
Currently, the most commonly used method to assess mind-wandering consists of probing the subjects' conscious experience at random intervals while performing various cognitive tasks (i.e., the thought-probe method; Giambra, 1995, Smallwood and Schooler, 2006). Typically, probes interrupt tasks requiring sustained externally-driven attention (e.g., reading tasks or signal detection tasks; Smallwood, Fishman, et al., 2007) and participants are instructed to report whether they were totally focused on the proposed task just before the interruption (i.e., on-task or stimulus-dependent reports, depending on which aspect of SITUTs is emphasized by the study) or whether they were distracted by task-unrelated conscious experiences (or stimulus-independent conscious experiences). In some studies (e.g., Teasdale et al., 1993, Teasdale et al., 1995), participants simply have to say what they had in mind at the moment of the thought-probe and the experimenters later classify the reports as reflecting on-task (or stimulus-dependent) or off-task (or stimulus-independent) conscious experiences. Whether self-reported or judged by the experimenter, off-task (or stimulus-independent) reports are considered to reflect the presence of mind-wandering episodes (e.g., Forster and Lavie, 2009, Giambra, 1995, Mason et al., 2007b, McKiernan et al., 2006, Smallwood, McSpadden and Schooler, 2007).
However, as illustrated in Fig. 1, distractions occurring during tasks requiring sustained focused attention to the external environment can originate not only from SITUTs but also (1) from interfering thoughts related to the appraisal of the current task, such as, for instance, wondering when the task will end or thoughts about one's overall performance (i.e., task-related interferences, abbreviated here as TRIs; Matthews et al., 1999, Smallwood et al., 2003, Smallwood, Davies, et al., 2004), and (2) from exteroceptive and interoceptive perceptions caused by irrelevant stimuli, such as noises, hunger, thirst and so forth (i.e., external distractions, abbreviated here as EDs; Forster and Lavie, 2008a, Forster and Lavie, 2008b, Lustig et al., 2001, Unsworth et al., 2010). The dichotomous division of conscious experiences into on-task and off-task (or stimulus-dependent and stimulus-independent) does not permit to clearly distinguish between these different categories (Christoff et al., 2009, Gilbert et al., 2007, Mason et al., 2007a, Mason et al., 2007b). As shown in Fig. 1, TRIs, EDs, SITUTs, and being fully focused on the current task can all be conceptualized along two dimensions: “task-relatedness” and “stimulus-dependency.” If the classification of ongoing conscious experiences is limited to on-task and off-task reports, EDs and SITUTs may be mixed in the same category. Similarly, if the division of conscious experiences is confined to stimulus-dependent or stimulus-independent reports, there is a risk for TRIs and SITUTs to be pooled together. This lack of precision of typical thought-probes is problematic as, currently, little is known about the precise nature of distractions caused by SITUTs versus EDs or TRIs.
In the present study, we used the conceptualization of conscious experiences based on the stimulus-dependency and task-relatedness dimensions described in Fig. 1 to develop a novel kind of thought-probes that clearly distinguishes SITUTs from other classes of distractions (i.e., EDs and TRIs). These new probes permitted us to determine in Experiment 1 whether SITUTs still affect task performance when they are rigorously separated from other kinds of distractions, and also to directly assess the similarities and differences between SITUTs, EDs, and TRIs in terms of their impact on task performance.
In spite of their negative impact on current task performance, SITUTs may nevertheless serve a variety of useful functions. Daydreams and mind-wandering episodes have notably been supposed to be involved in the maintenance of an ongoing sense of identity, in emotion regulation, creative thinking, self-entertainment during boring activities, or maintaining arousal in situations of poor environmental stimulation (for reviews, see Antrobus et al., 1970, Gold and Cundiff, 1980, Klinger, 1999). Furthermore, several authors have emphasized the potential importance of SITUTs in problem solving and planning for the future (Bar, 2007, Bar, 2009, Bar et al., 2007, Binder et al., 1999, Buckner and Vincent, 2007, Singer, 1966, Smallwood and Schooler, 2006). For example, discussing the possible function of daydreams, Binder et al. (1999, p. 85) suggested that “[...] by storing, retrieving, and manipulating internal information, we organize what could not be organized during stimulus presentation, solve problems that require computation over long periods of time, and create effective plans governing behavior in the future.” Mind-wandering episodes may thus be more than simple attentional lapses and consist in a redirection of cognitive resources away from the ongoing task and towards the processing of personal goals and concerns (Christoff et al., 2009, Smallwood, 2010, Smallwood and Schooler, 2006). Yet, to date, very few empirical studies have directly focused on the possible functions of SITUTs (Smallwood, 2009) and the evidence for their possible role in anticipating and planning future events, notably through the processing of personal goals and concerns, is inconsistent.
In a recent study, Smallwood, Nind, and O'Connor (2009) have suggested that the content of mind-wandering episodes mainly involves thoughts about the future. Using the above-mentioned thought-probe method, these authors found that off-task thoughts were more frequently oriented toward the future than toward the past and concluded that mind-wandering was characterized by a “prospective bias.” However, other laboratory studies reported roughly equivalent proportions of past- versus future-oriented off-task thoughts (Fransson, 2006, Mason et al., 2007a, Mason et al., 2007b). Some studies using thought sampling in daily life situations also reported that future- and past-oriented daydreams did not differ in prevalence (Klinger, 1990). It is possible that this discrepancy among findings originates, at least in part, from the lack of precision in the method used to assess SITUTs (see above)―the future-oriented function of mind-wandering might have been concealed by the mix-up of other conscious experiences with SITUTs. For example, it might be that, in the absence of probes offering the possibility to report TRIs, some past and future thoughts that do not fit the typical definition of mind-wandering were mixed with SITUTs (e.g., reflecting upon past errors committed during the task or thinking about the end of the task).
This possibility was explored in Experiment 2. We adapted the newly validated experience sampling method of Experiment 1 to precisely assess the content of each reported SITUT. Notably, in addition to the temporal orientation of these thoughts (Miles et al., 2010, Smallwood, Nind and O'Connor, 2009), we also examined their perceived functions. To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess this aspect of SITUTs and we were particularly interested in contrasting the frequency of SITUTs involved in preparing for the future with the frequency of SITUTs perceived as being aimless daydreams or involved in other functions (e.g., maintaining arousal or providing pleasant feelings; for reviews, see Antrobus et al., 1970, Gold and Cundiff, 1980, Klinger, 1999). Furthermore, we also explored whether the content of SITUTs can be manipulated experimentally. We reasoned that if an important function of SITUTs is to plan the future through the processing of personal goals and concerns (Christoff et al., 2009, Smallwood, 2010, Smallwood and Schooler, 2006), then the occurrence of SITUTs involved in preparing for upcoming events should be influenced by conditions that increase people's attention to their personal goals. Some previous research has shown that mind-wandering can be influenced by mood induction procedures (Seibert and Ellis, 1991, Smallwood, Fitzgerald, et al., 2009) or by confronting participants to threatening stressful events before performing a cognitive task (e.g., Antrobus et al., 1966, Horowitz, 1975). However, no study to date has attempted to manipulate pre-task circumstances to specifically influence the prospective bias of mind-wandering.
Section snippets
Experiment 1
In this experiment, we aimed at better characterizing SITUTs by implementing a novel experience sampling procedure. As developed in the Introduction, this method is based on a classification of ongoing conscious experiences into four categories along two dimensions: “task-relatedness” and “stimulus-dependency” (see Fig. 1). Using this novel experience sampling procedure, we first examined whether SITUTs still negatively affect task performance when they are rigorously distinguished from other
Experiment 2
Experiment 1 demonstrated that SITUTs negatively affect performance on the SART (Robertson et al., 1997), even when they are carefully distinguished from other kinds of distracting conscious experiences (i.e., EDs and TRIs). If the novel measure of SITUTs implemented in this study really reflects the core of mind-wandering, then these thoughts should be sensitive to variables supposed to characterize mind-wandering. This hypothesis was tested in Experiment 2, by exploring the content and
General discussion
The present study introduces a novel experience sampling method to study mind-wandering based on a conceptualization of ongoing conscious experiences along two dimensions: “task-relatedness” and “stimulus dependency.” This new method permits to clearly distinguish mind-wandering (i.e., stimulus-independent and task-unrelated thoughts; SITUTs) from irrelevant exteroceptive and interoceptive perceptions (i.e., external distractions; EDs) and interfering thoughts related to the appraisal of the
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