Looking Back From the Future: Perspective Taking in Virtual Reality Increases Future Self-Continuity.

In the current study, we tested a novel perspective-taking exercise aimed at increasing the connection participants felt toward their future self, i.e., future self-continuity. Participants role-played as their successful future self and answered questions about what it feels like to become their future and the path to get there. The exercise was also conducted in a virtual reality environment and in vivo to investigate the possible added value of the virtual environment with respect to improved focus, perspective-taking, and effectiveness for participants with less imagination. Results show that the perspective taking exercise in virtual reality substantially increased all four domains of future self-continuity, i.e., connectedness, similarity, vividness, and liking, while the in vivo equivalent increased only liking and vividness. Although connectedness and similarity were directionally, but not significantly different between the virtual and in vivo environments, neither the focus, perspective taking, or individual differences in imagination could explain this difference-which suggests a small, but non-significant, placebo effect of the virtual reality environment. However, lower baseline vividness in the in vivo group may explain this difference and suggests preliminary evidence for the dependency of connectedness and similarity domains upon baseline vividness. These findings show that the perspective taking exercise in a VR environment can reliably increase the future self-continuity domains.

Long-term dynamics of mind wandering: ultradian rhythms in thought generation.

Using the method of experience sampling, we studied the fluctuations in thought generation and cognitive control strength during the wakeful hours of the day, centered around episodes of mind wandering. Thought generation, measured in terms of the number of thoughts that concurrently occupy the mind at sampling time, goes through regular 4-6 h cycles, suggesting the mind operates with an alternation of focused and multitasking modes. Cognitive control strength rises and falls in relative coordination with thought generation, implying that both are occasionally misaligned. This happens, in particular, when cognitive control suddenly drops after having been keeping up with a cycle of thought generation. When this drop occurs while the thought generation cycle is still up, mind wandering appears. As cognitive control quickly resumes before returning to intermediate values, the thought generation cycle begins to fall again, and the mind wandering episode comes to an end. Implications regarding the role of long-term regulation in mind-wandering processes are discussed.