Abstract
Current accounts suggest that self-referential thought serves a pivotal function in the human ability to simulate the future during mind-wandering. Using experience sampling, this hypothesis was tested in two studies that explored the extent to which self-reflection impacts both retrospection and prospection during mind-wandering. Study 1 demonstrated that a brief period of self-reflection yielded a prospective bias during mind-wandering such that participants' engaged more frequently in spontaneous future than past thought. In Study 2, individual differences in the strength of self-referential thought as indexed by the memorial advantage for self rather than other-encoded items - was shown to vary with future thinking during mind-wandering. Together these results confirm that self-reflection is a core component of future thinking during mind-wandering and provide novel evidence that a key function of the autobiographical memory system may be to mentally simulate events in the future.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1120-1126 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Consciousness and Cognition |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | 31 Jan 2011 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2011 |
Cite this
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Self-reflection and the temporal focus of the wandering mind. / Smallwood, Jonathan; Schooler, Jonathan W.; Turk, David J.; Cunningham, Sheila J.; Burns, Phebe; Macrae, C. Neil.
In: Consciousness and Cognition, Vol. 20, No. 4, 12.2011, p. 1120-1126.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Self-reflection and the temporal focus of the wandering mind
AU - Smallwood, Jonathan
AU - Schooler, Jonathan W.
AU - Turk, David J.
AU - Cunningham, Sheila J.
AU - Burns, Phebe
AU - Macrae, C. Neil
PY - 2011/12
Y1 - 2011/12
N2 - Current accounts suggest that self-referential thought serves a pivotal function in the human ability to simulate the future during mind-wandering. Using experience sampling, this hypothesis was tested in two studies that explored the extent to which self-reflection impacts both retrospection and prospection during mind-wandering. Study 1 demonstrated that a brief period of self-reflection yielded a prospective bias during mind-wandering such that participants' engaged more frequently in spontaneous future than past thought. In Study 2, individual differences in the strength of self-referential thought as indexed by the memorial advantage for self rather than other-encoded items - was shown to vary with future thinking during mind-wandering. Together these results confirm that self-reflection is a core component of future thinking during mind-wandering and provide novel evidence that a key function of the autobiographical memory system may be to mentally simulate events in the future.
AB - Current accounts suggest that self-referential thought serves a pivotal function in the human ability to simulate the future during mind-wandering. Using experience sampling, this hypothesis was tested in two studies that explored the extent to which self-reflection impacts both retrospection and prospection during mind-wandering. Study 1 demonstrated that a brief period of self-reflection yielded a prospective bias during mind-wandering such that participants' engaged more frequently in spontaneous future than past thought. In Study 2, individual differences in the strength of self-referential thought as indexed by the memorial advantage for self rather than other-encoded items - was shown to vary with future thinking during mind-wandering. Together these results confirm that self-reflection is a core component of future thinking during mind-wandering and provide novel evidence that a key function of the autobiographical memory system may be to mentally simulate events in the future.
U2 - 10.1016/j.concog.2010.12.017
DO - 10.1016/j.concog.2010.12.017
M3 - Article
VL - 20
SP - 1120
EP - 1126
JO - Consciousness and Cognition
JF - Consciousness and Cognition
SN - 1053-8100
IS - 4
ER -