Manipulating cues in mind wandering: Verbal cues affect the frequency and the temporal focus of mind wandering

•We demonstrate that task-irrelevant verbal stimulation increases the frequency of MW.•We demonstrate that task-irrelevant verbal stimulation steers the temporal orientation of MW toward the past.•Our results highlight the cue-dependent nature of MW. Our understanding of mind wandering (MW) has dram...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Consciousness and cognition 2017-08, Vol.53, p.61-69
Main Authors: Vannucci, Manila, Pelagatti, Claudia, Marchetti, Igor
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Attention - physiology
Control
Cues
Fantasies
Female
Humans
Involuntary autobiographical memories
Male
Mind wandering
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Reading
Retrospective bias
Studies
Task-unrelated thoughts
Temporal orientation
Thinking - physiology
Time Factors
Verbal cues
Vigilance
Young Adult
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Summary:•We demonstrate that task-irrelevant verbal stimulation increases the frequency of MW.•We demonstrate that task-irrelevant verbal stimulation steers the temporal orientation of MW toward the past.•Our results highlight the cue-dependent nature of MW. Our understanding of mind wandering (MW) has dramatically increased over the past decade. A key challenge still facing research is the identification of the processes and events that directly cause and control its occurrence. In the present study we sought to shed light on this question, by investigating the effects of verbal cues on the frequency and temporal focus of MW. To this aim, we experimentally manipulated the presence of irrelevant verbal cues during a vigilance task, in two independent groups (Verbal-cues group vs. No-cues group). We found that compared to the No-cues group, the Verbal-cues group reported a higher amount of MW, mostly triggered by the irrelevant cue-words, and a higher proportion of past-oriented MW compared to the other temporal orientations. These results demonstrate that task-irrelevant verbal stimulation increases the frequency of MW and steers its temporal orientation toward the past. Implications for the research on MW are discussed.
ISSN:1053-8100
1090-2376
DOI:10.1016/j.concog.2017.06.004