Mills Caitlin, Porter Andrew R, Andrews-Hanna Jessica R, Christoff Kalina, Colby Alexander
Department of Psychology, University of New Hampshire.
Department of Computer Science, University of New Hampshire.
Emotion. 2021 Aug;21(5):1029-1040. doi: 10.1037/emo0000849. Epub 2021 Feb 25.
Much of our knowledge about the correlates of mind-wandering comes from assessing task-unrelated thought. Less is known about the correlates of freely moving thought, a dimension that assesses the degree to which thoughts arise and unfold with low levels of guidance or constraints. Task-unrelated thought is consistently associated with more negative affective valence compared with being on task; however, it is unclear whether freely moving thought shares the same relationship with affect. We conducted two ecological momentary assessment studies in the context of everyday life and found that the two dimensions have different affective correlates. In Study 1, task-unrelated thought was associated with less positive concurrent valence than being on-task. However, freely moving thought was associated with more positive concurrent valence and was predictive of more positive valence at a subsequent timepoint. Freely moving thought, but not task-unrelated thought, also positively predicted concurrent arousal. Computational sentiment analyses of participants' thought descriptions offered convergent evidence of differential relationships between the two thought dimensions and affect. Study 2 used different measurement scales to assess whether (a) the pattern of findings replicated and (b) if the effects were robust to changes in measurement. The main findings were replicated: task-unrelated thought was negatively associated with concurrent valence, whereas freely moving thought was positively associated with concurrent valence. However, freely moving thought did not predict subsequent valence and was not related to concurrent arousal. The most robust findings related to concurrent valence. Although mind-wandering has acquired a relatively negative reputation to date, our findings suggest that there might be positive aspects that remain unexplored. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
我们对走神相关因素的许多了解都来自于对与任务无关的思维的评估。对于自由流动思维的相关因素，我们了解得较少。自由流动思维这一维度评估的是思维在低水平引导或限制下产生和展开的程度。与专注于任务相比，与任务无关的思维始终与更消极的情感效价相关联；然而，尚不清楚自由流动思维与情感是否具有相同的关系。我们在日常生活背景下进行了两项生态瞬时评估研究，发现这两个维度具有不同的情感相关因素。在研究1中，与专注于任务相比，与任务无关的思维与当下较少的积极效价相关。然而，自由流动思维与当下更多的积极效价相关，并且能够预测随后某个时间点更积极的效价。自由流动思维，而非与任务无关的思维，也正向预测了当下的唤醒水平。对参与者思维描述的计算情感分析为这两种思维维度与情感之间的差异关系提供了趋同证据。研究2使用了不同的测量量表来评估：（a）研究结果的模式是否能够重复，以及（b）这些效应对于测量变化是否稳健。主要研究结果得到了重复：与任务无关的思维与当下效价呈负相关，而自由流动思维与当下效价呈正相关。然而，自由流动思维并不能预测随后的效价，也与当下的唤醒水平无关。最稳健的研究结果与当下效价有关。尽管到目前为止，走神已经获得了相对负面的名声，但我们的研究结果表明，可能仍有未被探索的积极方面。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2021美国心理学会，保留所有权利）
