Vannucci Manila, Pelagatti Claudia, Chiorri Carlo, Brugger Peter
Department of NEUROFARBA, Section of Psychology, University of Florence, Via San Salvi 12, Padiglione 26, 50135, Florence, Italy.
Department of Educational Sciences, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy.
Psychol Res. 2019 Jun;83(4):698-709. doi: 10.1007/s00426-018-1080-x. Epub 2018 Aug 29.
Our understanding of mind wandering (MW) has dramatically increased over the past decade. Studies have shown that in the vast majority of cases, MW is directed to times other than the present, and a bias toward the future has been reported (prospective bias). The processing of time is not independent of the processing of space: humans represent time along a spatial continuum, on a "mental time line" (MTL). In cultures with a left to right reading/writing system, the MTL expands from left to right. Capitalizing on these findings, here we aimed at investigating the effects of visuo-spatial processing on the temporal orientation of spontaneous MW, and specifically we asked whether we could steer the temporal focus of MW towards the past or the future, by experimentally inducing a leftward and a rightward orienting of attention, respectively. To this aim, we experimentally manipulated the spatial orientation demands associated with the focal task in two independent groups, with a leftward orienting of attention (left-pointing arrows, LA group) and a rightward orienting of attention (right-pointing arrows, RA group). We found that the temporal orientation of MW critically depended on the spatial orientation demands of the task: specifically, the proportion of spontaneous past-oriented MW episodes was higher under the induction of a leftward orienting attention (LA group) than under the induction of a rightward orienting attention (RA group). The opposite pattern was found for spontaneous future-oriented MW episodes. Possible mechanisms involved in this effect and their implications for research on MW and spontaneous cognition are discussed.
在过去十年中，我们对思维游荡（MW）的理解有了显著提升。研究表明，在绝大多数情况下，思维游荡指向的是当下之外的时间，并且已有报道称存在对未来的偏向（前瞻性偏向）。时间的处理并非独立于空间的处理：人类在一条“心理时间线”（MTL）上沿着空间连续体来表征时间。在具有从左到右读写系统的文化中，心理时间线从左向右扩展。基于这些发现，我们在此旨在研究视觉空间处理对自发思维游荡的时间取向的影响，具体而言，我们询问是否能够分别通过实验性地诱导注意力向左和向右定向，将思维游荡的时间焦点转向过去或未来。为了实现这一目标，我们在两个独立的组中对与焦点任务相关的空间定向需求进行了实验性操纵，一组是注意力向左定向（向左的箭头，LA组），另一组是注意力向右定向（向右的箭头，RA组）。我们发现，思维游荡的时间取向关键取决于任务的空间定向需求：具体而言，在向左定向注意力的诱导下（LA组），自发的过去导向型思维游荡事件的比例高于在向右定向注意力的诱导下（RA组）。对于自发的未来导向型思维游荡事件，发现了相反的模式。本文讨论了这种效应可能涉及的机制及其对思维游荡和自发认知研究的意义。
