The Conceptual Building Blocks of Everyday Thought: Tracking the Emergence and Dynamics of Ruminative and Non-Ruminative Thinking

• Published in: Journal of experimental psychology. General 2021-09, Vol.151 (3), p.628-642
• Main Authors: Andrews-Hanna, Jessica R., Woo, Choong-Wan, Wilcox, Ramsey, Eisenbarth, Hedwig, Kim, Byeol, Han, Jihoon, Reynolds Losin, Elizabeth A., Wager, Tor D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0096-3445; 1939-2222
• DOI: 10.1037/xge0001096

How do thoughts arise, unfold, and change over time? Are the contents and dynamics of everyday thought rooted in conceptual associations within one’s semantic networks? To address these questions, we developed the Free Association Semantic Task (FAST), whereby participants generate dynamic chains of conceptual associations in response to seed words that vary in valence. Ninety-four adults from a community sample completed the FAST task and additionally described and rated six of their most frequently occurring everyday thoughts. Text analysis and valence ratings revealed similarities in thematic and affective content between FAST concept chains and recurrent autobiographical thoughts. Dynamic analyses revealed that individuals high in rumination were more strongly attracted to negative conceptual spaces and more likely to remain there longer. Overall, these findings provide quantitative evidence that conceptual associations may act as a semantic scaffold for more complex everyday thoughts, and that more negative and less dynamic conceptual associations in ruminative individuals mirror maladaptive repetitive thoughts in daily life.