RESUMO
Mind wandering (MW) is a common feature of the human experience occurring when our attention shifts from the task at hand to inner thoughts. MW seems to be often future-oriented and could be used to help people to carry out their planned actions (Prospective Memory PM). Here, we tested the link between MW and the ability to perform PM intentions. We assessed MW and PM over 15 days using experience-sampling probes via mobile phone (226 participants) associated with a naturalistic PM task. We confirmed that MW occupies a significant proportion of our mental activity (40%). This time seems to be mainly used to project ourselves into the future (64%), whether to anticipate and imagine the long term (20%) or to plan daily obligations (44%). Intriguingly, only past-oriented thoughts (9%) predict the PM performance. We discuss the possible functional role played by MW in maintaining intentions in mind.
RESUMO
Mind wandering occupies an essential part of our awakened life and concerns all spontaneous thoughts unrelated to an ongoing activity. Laboratory research has studied this mental state during the execution of specific tasks measuring the conditions of emergence, the frequency and content of spontaneous thoughts and the consequences, usually harmful, on the performances tested. This mini review aims to define the phenomenon, expose the prejudices on performance and the assets of the wandering mind, and present the literature on the effects of cognitive aging on the incidence and characteristics of mind wandering. Various studies have shown a reduction in task-unrelated thoughts in the elderly, combined with an increase in task-related interfering thoughts. Some explanations are proposed, such as reducing cognitive resources or increasing motivation in the context of normal aging. The content of mind wandering seems crucial to understanding how this phenomenon evolves in aging. Hence, in future research, an assessment of the characteristics of the thoughts (emotion, temporality, association with stimuli, etc.) will deepen our knowledge of the link between mind wandering and aging.
Le vagabondage de l'esprit occupe une part importante de notre vie éveillée et concerne toutes les pensées spontanées qui ne sont pas liées à une activité en cours. Les recherches effectuées en laboratoire ont étudié cet état mental lors de la réalisation de tâches précises mesurant les conditions d'émergence, la fréquence et le contenu des pensées spontanées et les conséquences, généralement délétères, sur les performances testées. L'objectif de cette mini-revue est tout d'abord de définir le phénomène et ses conséquences néfastes sur les performances, d'examiner néanmoins les atouts de l'esprit vagabond, et enfin de présenter la littérature sur les effets du vieillissement cognitif dans l'incidence et les caractéristiques du vagabondage de l'esprit. Différentes études mettent en évidence, chez les sujets âgés, une réduction des pensées non liées à la tâche associée à une augmentation des pensées interférentes liées à la tâche. Plusieurs pistes explicatives sont proposées, comme la réduction des ressources cognitives ou l'augmentation de la motivation dans le cadre du vieillissement normal. La nature de contenu du vagabondage de l'esprit semble cruciale pour comprendre la manière dont ce phénomène évolue dans le cadre du vieillissement. Ainsi, dans l'avenir, une évaluation des caractéristiques des pensées (émotion, temporalité, lien avec les stimuli, etc.) permettra d'approfondir notre connaissance du lien entre vagabondage de l'esprit et vieillissement.
Assuntos
Atenção , Envelhecimento Cognitivo , Idoso , Envelhecimento , Humanos , MotivaçãoRESUMO
In the last two decades, mind wandering has received increased interest in the field of cognitive neuroscience. Despite the strong links between attention and memory, its effect on episodic memory encoding has only been recently investigated. To date, there is no systematic synthesis on this link. Following the PRISMA guidelines, a systematic review of the literature on mind wandering and episodic memory was conducted. Five online bibliographic databases (PsycNET, Pubmed, ScienceDirect, Web of Science and Taylor & Francis) were searched. Twenty-four studies were eligible for the current review and were compared based on their methodologies and results. Overall, stimulus-independent mind wandering appeared to be a reliable negative factor influencing the encoding of both words and audio-visual stimuli. However, a few studies pointed out a potential positive effect of stimulus-dependent mind wandering on episodic memory encoding. Theoretical explanations of these results, the limits of existing investigations and avenues for potential future research are discussed.
Assuntos
Memória Episódica , Atenção , Humanos , Transtornos da MemóriaRESUMO
Prospective memory (PM) consists of remembering to perform an action that was previously planned. The recovery and execution of these actions require attentional resources. Mindfulness, as a state or a dispositional trait, has been associated with better attentional abilities while mind wandering is linked with attentional failures. In this study, we investigated the impact of mindfulness on PM. Eighty participants learned 15 cue-action associations. They were, then, asked to recall the actions at certain moments (time-based items) or places (event-based items) during a walk in a virtual town. Before the PM task, participants were randomly assigned to a mindfulness or mind wandering (control condition) session. Dispositional mindfulness was measured via the Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ). Although considered as two opposite states, we did not report any difference between the two groups on PM abilities. Nevertheless, the natural tendency to describe one's own sensations (the Describing facet of the FFMQ) predicted time-based performance in both groups. We discuss different hypotheses to explain this finding in light of recent findings on the impact of mind wandering on future oriented cognition. Our main observation is a positive link between the Describing facet and time-based PM performances. We propose that this link could be due to the common association of this mindfulness facets and PM with attentional and interoceptive abilities. Additional studies are needed to explore this hypothesis.
