Skip to main content
Mijn bibliotheek
Shop
Nieuws Boeken Tijdschriften E-learning Web-tv Video Audio
Tips voor Mijn BSL
UITGEBREID ZOEKEN
Inloggen
Top
Psychological Research
Gepubliceerd in: Psychological Research 4/2019

20-08-2018 | Original Article

Thinking about the past and future in daily life: an experience sampling study of individual differences in mental time travel

Auteurs: Roger E. Beaty, Paul Seli, Daniel L. Schacter

Gepubliceerd in: Psychological Research | Uitgave 4/2019

Log in om toegang te krijgen
share
DELEN

Deel dit onderdeel of sectie (kopieer de link)

  • Optie A:
    Klik op de rechtermuisknop op de link en selecteer de optie “linkadres kopiëren”
  • Optie B:
    Deel de link per e-mail
    Link delen
publish
Publiceer nu

Abstract

Remembering the past and imagining the future are hallmarks of mental time travel. We provide evidence that such experiences are influenced by individual differences in temporal and affective biases in cognitive style, particularly brooding rumination (a negative past-oriented bias) and optimism (a positive future-oriented bias). Participants completed a 7-day, cellphone-based experience-sampling study of temporal orientation and mental imagery. Multilevel models showed that individual differences in brooding rumination predicted less vivid and positive past- and future-oriented thoughts, even after controlling for depressed mood. People high in brooding rumination were also more likely to report thinking about a past experience when probed at random during the day. Conversely, optimists were more likely to report more vivid and positive future-oriented, but not past-oriented thoughts, although they did not report thinking more or less often about the past and future. The results suggest that temporal and affective biases in cognitive style influence how people think about the past and future in daily life.
vorige artikel The tendency for experiencing involuntary future and past mental time travel is robustly related to thought suppression: an exploratory study
volgende artikel Spontaneous cognition in dysphoria: reduced positive bias in imagining the future
Voetnoten
1
We also assessed the role of gender. Past research suggests that women ruminate more than men (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991), and our sample was approximately two-thirds female; however, gender did not decrease the effect of brooding on vividness.
 
Literatuur
Addis, D. R., Pan, L., Musicaro, R., & Schacter, D. L. (2016). Divergent thinking and constructing episodic simulations. Memory, 24, 89–97.CrossRefPubMed
Addis, D. R., Pan, L., Vu, M., Laiser, N., & Schacter, D. L. (2009). Constructive episodic simulation of the future and the past: Distinct subsystems of a core brain network mediate imaging and remembering. Neuropsychologia, 47, 2222–2238.CrossRefPubMed
Addis, D. R., Wong, A. T., & Schacter, D. L. (2007). Remembering the past and imagining the future: Common and distinct neural substrates during event construction and elaboration. Neuropsychologia, 45, 1363–1377.CrossRefPubMed
Addis, D. R., Wong, A. T., & Schacter, D. L. (2008). Age-related changes in the episodic simulation of future events. Psychological Science, 19, 33–41.CrossRefPubMed
Baird, B., Smallwood, J., & Schooler, J. W. (2011). Back to the future: autobiographical planning and the functionality of mind-wandering. Consciousness and Cognition, 20, 1604–1611.CrossRefPubMed
Beaty, R. E., Benedek, M., Silvia, P. J., & Schacter, D. L. (2016). Creative cognition and brain network dynamics. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 20, 87–95.CrossRefPubMed
Beaty, R. E., Burgin, C. J., Nusbaum, E. C., Kwapil, T. R., Hodges, D. A., & Silvia, P. J. (2013). Music to the inner ears: Exploring individual differences in musical imagery. Consciousness and Cognition, 22, 1163–1173.CrossRefPubMed
Beaty, R. E., & Schacter, D. L. (2018). Episodic memory and cognitive control. Contributions to creative idea production. In R. Jung & O. Vartanian (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of the neuroscience of creativity. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Beaty, R. E., & Silvia, P. J. (2012). Why do ideas get more creative across time? An executive interpretation of the serial order effect in divergent thinking tasks. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 6, 309–319.CrossRef
Beaty, R. E., & Silvia, P. J. (2013). Metaphorically speaking: Cognitive abilities and the production of figurative language. Memory and Cognition, 41, 255–267.CrossRefPubMed
Benoit, R. G., & Schacter, D. L. (2015). Specifying the core network supporting episodic simulation and episodic memory by activation likelihood estimation. Neuropsychologia, 75, 450–457.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
Berntsen, D., & Jacobsen, A. S. (2008). Involuntary (spontaneous) mental time travel into the past and future. Consciousness and Cognition, 17, 1093–1104.CrossRefPubMed
Blackwell, S. E., Rius-Ottenheim, N., Schulte-van Maaren, Y. W. M., Carlier, I. V. E., Middelkoop, V. C., Zitman, F. G., et al. (2013). Optimism and mental imagery: A possible cognitive marker to promote well-being? Psychiatry Research, 206, 56–61.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
Brissette, I., Scheier, M. F., & Carver, C. S. (2002). The role of optimism in social network development, coping, and psychological adjustment during a life transition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 102–111.CrossRefPubMed
Brown, A. D., Addis, D. R., Romano, T. A., Marmar, C. R., Bryant, R. A., Hirst, W., & Schacter, D. L. (2014). Episodic and semantic components of autobiographical memories and imagined future events in post-traumatic stress disorder. Memory, 22, 595–604.CrossRefPubMed
Burgin, C. J., Silvia, P. J., Eddington, K. M., & Kwapil, T. R. (2013). Palm or cell? Comparing personal digital assistants and cell phones for experience sampling research. Social Science Computer Review, 31, 244–251.CrossRef
Christoff, K., Irving, Z. C., Fox, K. C., Spreng, R. N., & Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2016). Mind-wandering as spontaneous thought: a dynamic framework. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 17, 718–731.CrossRefPubMed
Cole, S. N., Staugaard, S. R., & Berntsen, D. (2016). Inducing involuntary and voluntary mental time travel using a laboratory paradigm. Memory & Cognition, 44, 376–389.CrossRef
D’Argembeau, A., & Mathy, A. (2011). Tracking the construction of episodic future thoughts. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 140, 258–271.CrossRef
D’Argembeau, A., Ortoleva, C., Jumentier, S., & Van der Linden, M. (2010). Component processes underlying future thinking. Memory & Cognition, 38, 809–819.CrossRef
D’Argembeau, A., Rafford, S., & Van der Linden, M. (2008). Remembering the past and imagining the future in schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 117, 247–251.CrossRefPubMed
D’Argembeau, A., Renauld, O., & Van der Linden, M. (2011). Frequency, characteristics and functions of future-oriented thoughts in daily life. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 25, 96–103.CrossRef
D’Argembeau, A., Stawarczyk, D., Majerus, S., Collette, F., Van der Linden, M., Feyers, D., et al. (2010). The neural basis of personal goal processing when envisioning future events. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22, 1701–1713.CrossRefPubMed
D’Argembeau, A., & van der Linden, M. (2004). Phenomenal characteristics associated with projecting oneself back into the past and forward into the future: Influence of valence and temporal distance. Consciousness and Cognition, 13, 844–858.CrossRefPubMed
D’Argembeau, A., & Van der Linden, M. (2006). Individual differences in the phenomenology of mental time travel: The effect of vivid visual imagery and emotion regulation strategies. Consciousness and Cognition, 15, 342–350.CrossRefPubMed
De Brigard, F., Szpunar, K. K., & Schacter, D. L. (2013). Coming to grips with the past: Effect of repeated simulation on the perceived plausibility of episodic counterfactual thoughts. Psychological Science, 24, 1329–1334.CrossRefPubMed
Dickson, J. M., & Bates, G. W. (2005). Influence of repression on autobiographical memories and expectations of the future. Australian Journal of Psychology, 57, 20–27.CrossRef
Enders, C. K., & Tofighi, D. (2007). Centering predictor variables in cross-sectional multilevel models: A new look at an old issue. Psychological Methods, 12, 121–138.CrossRefPubMed
Gilhooly, K. J., Fioratou, E., Anthony, S. H., & Wynn, V. (2007). Divergent thinking: Strategies and executive involvement in generating novel uses for familiar objects. British Journal of Psychology, 98, 611–625.CrossRefPubMed
Hassabis, D., Kumaran, D., & Maguire, E. A. (2007). Using imagination to understand the neural basis of episodic memory. Journal of Neuroscience, 27, 14365–14374.CrossRefPubMed
Hill, P. F., & Emery, L. J. (2013). Episodic future thought: Contributions from working memory. Consciousness & Cognition, 22, 677–683.CrossRef
Holmes, E. A., Lang, T. J., Moulds, M. L., & Steele, A. M. (2008). Prospective and positive mental imagery deficits in dysphoria. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 46(8), 976–981.CrossRefPubMed
Irish, M., & Piguet, O. (2013). The pivotal role of semantic memory in remembering the past and imagining the future. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 7, 27.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
Kane, M. J., Brown, L. H., McVay, J. C., Silvia, P. J., Myin-Germeys, I., & Kwapil, T. R. (2007). For whom the mind wanders, and when: An experience-sampling study of working memory and executive control in daily life. Psychological Science, 18, 614–621.CrossRefPubMed
Kline, R. B. (2011). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (3rd edn.). New York: Guilford.
Klinger, E., & Cox, W. M. (1987). Dimensions of thought flow in everyday life. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 7, 105–128.CrossRef
Killingsworth, M. A., & Gilbert, D. T. (2010). A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Science, 330, 932.CrossRefPubMed
Koster, E. H., De Lissnyder, E., Derakshan, N., & De Raedt, R. (2011). Understanding depressive rumination from a cognitive science perspective: The impaired disengagement hypothesis. Clinical psychology review, 31, 138–145.CrossRefPubMed
Kremers, I. P., Spinhoven, P., Van Der Does, A. J., & van Dyck, R. (2006). Social problem solving, autobiographical memory and the future specificity in outpatients with borderline personality disorder. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 13, 131–137.CrossRef
Kvavilashvili, L., & Schlagman, S. (2011). Involuntary autobiographical memories in dysphoric mood: A laboratory study. Memory, 19, 331–345.CrossRefPubMed
Lovibond, P. F., & Lovibond, S. H. (1995). The structure of negative emotional states: comparison of the depression anxiety stress scales (DASS) with the Beck depression and anxiety inventories. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33, 335–343.CrossRefPubMed
MacLeod, A. K., Rose, G., & Williams, J. M. (1993). Components of hopelessness about the future in parasuicide. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 17, 441–455.CrossRef
McDermott, K. B., Wooldridge, C. L., Rice, H. J., Berg, J. J., & Szpunar, K. K. (2016). Visual perspective in remembering and episodic future thought. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 69, 243–253.CrossRefPubMed
McNally, R. J., Litz, B. T., Prassas, A., Shin, L. M., & Weathers, F. W. (1994). Emotional priming of autobiographical memory in post-traumatic stress disorder. Cognition & Emotion, 8, 351–367.CrossRef
Miloyan, B., Bulley, A., & Suddendorf, T. (2016). Episodic foresight and anxiety: Proximate and ultimate perspectives. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 55, 4–22.CrossRefPubMed
Mullally, S. L., & Maguire, E. A. (2014). Memory, imagination, and predicting the future: A. common brain mechanism? The Neuroscientist, 20, 220–234.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (1991). Responses to depression and their effects on the duration of depressive episodes. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100, 569–582.CrossRefPubMed
Poerio, G. L., Totterdell, P., & Miles, E. (2013). Mind-wandering and negative mood: Does one thing really lead to another? Consciousness and Cognition, 22, 1412–1421.CrossRefPubMed
Roberts, R. P., Wiebels, K., Sumner, R. L., van Mulukom, V., Grady, C. L., Schacter, D. L., & Addis, D. R. (2017). An fMRI investigation of the relationship between future imagination and cognitive flexibility. Neuropsychologia, 95, 156–172.CrossRefPubMed
Schacter, D. L. (2012). Adaptive constructive processes and the future of memory. American Psychologist, 67, 603–613.CrossRefPubMed
Schacter, D. L., & Addis, D. R. (2007). On the constructive simulation of past and future events. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 30, 331–332.CrossRef
Schacter, D. L., Addis, D. R., & Buckner, R. L. (2007). Remembering the past to imagine the future: The prospective brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 8, 657–661.CrossRefPubMed
Schacter, D. L., Addis, D. R., Hassabis, D., Martin, V. C., Spreng, R. N., & Szpunar, K. K. (2012). The future of memory: remembering, imagining, and the brain. Neuron, 76, 677–694.CrossRefPubMed
Schacter, D. L., Benoit, R. G., De Brigard, F., & Szpunar, K. K. (2015). Episodic future thinking and episodic counterfactual thinking: intersections between memory and decisions. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 17, 114–121.
Schacter, D. L., Benoit, R. G., & Szpunar, K. K. (2017). Episodic future thinking: mechanisms and functions. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 17, 41–50.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
Schacter, D. L., & Madore, K. P. (2016). Remembering the past and imagining the future: identifying and enhancing the contribution of episodic memory. Memory Studies, 9, 245–255.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
Scheier, M. F., Carver, C. S., & Bridges, M. W. (1994). Distinguishing optimism from neuroticism (and trait anxiety, self-mastery, and self-esteem): a re-evaluation of the Life Orientation Test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 1063–1078.CrossRefPubMed
Seli, P., Kane, M., Smallwood, J., Schacter, D. L., Maillet, D., Schooler, J., & Smilek, D. (2018). Mind-wandering as a natural kind: a family-resemblances view. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 22, 479–490.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
Seli, P., Ralph, B. C., Konishi, M., Smilek, D., & Schacter, D. L. (2017). What did you have in mind? Examining the content of intentional and unintentional types of mind wandering. Consciousness and Cognition, 51, 149–156.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
Seli, P., Risko, E. F., & Smilek, D. (2016). On the necessity of distinguishing between unintentional and intentional mind wandering. Psychological Science, 27, 685–691.CrossRefPubMed
Sheldon, S., & El-Asmar, N. (2017). The cognitive tools that support mentally constructing event and scene representations. Memory, 26, 858–868.CrossRefPubMed
Silvia, P. J., Kwapil, T. R., Eddington, K. M., & Brown, L. H. (2013). Missed beeps and missing data: dispositional and situational predictors of non-response in experience sampling research. Social Science Computer Review, 31, 471–481.CrossRef
Spronken, M., Holland, R. W., Figner, B., & Dijksterhuis, A. (2016). Temporal focus, temporal distance, and mind-wandering valence: results from an experience sampling and an experimental study. Consciousness and Cognition, 41, 104–118.CrossRefPubMed
Stawarczyk, D., & D’Argembeau, A. (2015). Neural correlates of personal goal processing during episodic future thinking and mind-wandering: An ALE meta-analysis. Human Brain Mapping, 36, 2928–2947.CrossRefPubMed
Szpunar, K. K. (2010). Episodic future thought: an emerging concept. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5, 142–162.CrossRefPubMed
Szpunar, K. K., & McDermott, K. B. (2008). Episodic future thought and its relation to remembering: evidence from ratings of subjective experience. Consciousness and Cognition, 17, 330–334.CrossRefPubMed
Szpunar, K. K., Watson, J. M., & McDermott, K. B. (2007). Neural substrates of envisioning the future. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104, 642–647.CrossRef
Telesage. (2009). SmartQ (version 5.2.48) [computer software]. Chapel Hill: Telesage.
Treynor, W., Gonzalez, R., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2003). Rumination reconsidered: a psychometric analysis. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27, 247–259.CrossRef
Tulving, E. (1985). Memory and consciousness. Canadian Psychology, 26, 1–12.CrossRef
Watkins, E., & Teasdale, J. D. (2001). Rumination and overgeneral memory in depression: effects of self-focus and analytic thinking. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 110, 353–357.CrossRefPubMed
Weinstein, N. D. (1980). Unrealistic optimism about future life events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 806–820.CrossRef
Williams, J. M. G., Barnhofer, T., Crane, C., Herman, D., Raes, F., Watkins, E., & Dalgleish, T. (2007). Autobiographical memory specificity and emotional disorder. Psychological Bulletin, 133, 122–148.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
Williams, J. M. G., Ellis, N. C., Tyers, C., & Healy, H. (1996). The specificity of autobiographical memory and imageability of the future. Memory & Cognition, 24, 116–125.CrossRef
Wu, J., Szpunar, K. K., Godovich, S., Schacter, D. L., & Hofmann, S. G. (2015). Episodic future thinking in generalized anxiety disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 36, 1–8.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
Zabelina, D. L., & Robinson, M. D. (2010). Creativity as flexible cognitive control. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 4, 136–143.CrossRef
Zimbardo, P. G., & Boyd, J. N. (2015). Putting time in perspective: A valid, reliable individual-differences metric. In M. Stolarski, N. Fieulaine, & W. van Beek (Eds.), Time perspective theory: Review, research and application. Cham: Springer.
Metagegevens
Titel
Thinking about the past and future in daily life: an experience sampling study of individual differences in mental time travel
Auteurs
Roger E. Beaty
Paul Seli
Daniel L. Schacter
Publicatiedatum
20-08-2018
Uitgeverij
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Gepubliceerd in
Psychological Research / Uitgave 4/2019
Print ISSN: 0340-0727
Elektronisch ISSN: 1430-2772
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-018-1075-7

Andere artikelen Uitgave 4/2019

Psychological Research 4/2019 Naar de uitgave

Original Article

Age-related changes in the temporal focus and self-referential content of spontaneous cognition during periods of low cognitive demand

Original Article

Why are we not flooded by involuntary thoughts about the past and future? Testing the cognitive inhibition dependency hypothesis

Original Article

Spontaneous cognition in dysphoria: reduced positive bias in imagining the future

Original Article

Space–time interaction: visuo-spatial processing affects the temporal focus of mind wandering

Original Article

Spontaneous future cognitions: an integrative review

Original Article

The tendency for experiencing involuntary future and past mental time travel is robustly related to thought suppression: an exploratory study