an experience sampling study, 170 undergraduates reported on their tho - PDF document

an experience sampling study, 170 undergraduates reported on their thoughts four times a day for one week. thoughts? And which would you enjoy moreÑdoing something or just thinking? (Franklin, et al., 2013; Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2011; Song & Wang, 2012; Wilson et al., 2014). Another limitation of previous research is that much of it examined task unrelated thought, or cases in which people were trying to pay attention to an external activity but found that their preferred to be engaged in external activities (such as reading) instead of focused on their thoughts. Consistent with this conclusion, a recent set of studies found that Òjust thinkingÓÑtrying to intentional reverie, requires that people select topics that enjoy thinking about, initiate thinking about those topics, monitor their thoughts to make sure that they stay on topic, and keep competing thoughts out of consciousness. Such a process of monitoring and control may be difficult because it taxes cognitive resources (Wegner, 1994). In contrast spontaneous reverie, defined as the case in which desirable thoughts come to mind without intention or effort, might be easier and more enjoyable than intentional reverie because it is less cognitively demanding. The purpose of the present study was to compare spontaneous versus intentional reverie nventory categories. Participants selected one or more of 16 categories from a drop-down menu that best characterized their thought or checked Òother.Ó Three of these were external categories that involved focusing on the external environment, namely Òpaying attention to something external,Ó Òproblem solving-external,Ó and Òconversation with someone.Ó Nine were internal categories, namely Òproblem solving-internal,Ó Òflow,Ó Òrumination,Ó Òdaydreaming,Ó Òthinking about what you want to do in the future,Ó Òrecalling memories of the past,Ó Òmusing,Ó Òengaged in meditation,Ó and Òthought suppression.Ó Three of the categories were neither internal nor external: Òbored/tired,Ó Ònot thinking about anything,Ó and Ònot Following the study, all participants were debriefed via an internet link texted to their phones. Results Descriptive Statistics and Preliminary Analyses On average, participants provided responses for 18 of the 28 possible time-points ( they were classified as internally focused. If participants checked an external category (e.g., problem solving, external) and reported that they were trying to pay attention externally (i.e., their response was above the midpoint on the question thoughts: Intentional reverie (intended and desirable), spontaneous reverie (spontaneous and desirable), self-examination (intended and undesirable), and thought intrusions (spontaneous and undesirable). Intentional reverie (6.8%; range = 0% to 40%) and spontaneous reverie (6.4%; range = 0% to 67%) occurred with about equal frequency. Thirty-six percent of participants reported no instances of intentional reverie, and % reported no instances of spontaneous reverie. Less desirable forms of internally focused thoughtÑself-examination and thought intrusionsÑoccurred with less frequency; 4.1% (range = 0% to 38%) and 3.3% (range = 0% to 25%), respectively. Valence and Mood As seen in Table 1, spontaneous reverie was rated more positively than intentional reverie (intentional, desirable, internal thoughts). The estimated marginal mean valence for spontaneous reverie (spontaneous, desirable, internal thoughts; = 1.24, 95% CI: 1.10, 1.37) was significantly more positive than the marginal mean for intentional reverie (intentional, desirable, internal thoughts; M = .94, 95% CI: .79, 1.08). This can be considered a significant difference, given that the confidence intervals do not overlap. As seen in Table 2, there were two other significant interactions on valence ratings: Thought Category x Desirable and Attention x Intended. The former reflects the fact that when thoughts were desirable, people gave higher valence ratings when they were tr which taxes cognitive resources. This may be why participants in studies by Wilson et al. (2014) found it difficult to enjoy their thoughts: They were asked to deliberately entertain themselves by thinking, which made the experience intentional rather than spontaneous. Deliberately trying to bring to mind and sustain pleasant thoughts, such as about an upcoming vacation, appears to be less enjoyable than when those thoughts pop into mind spontaneous At any given moment, people have a choice: of War. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Reber, A. S. (1992). The cognitive unconscious: An evolutionary perspective. Consciousness and Cognition, 1, 93-133. Ruby, F.J.M., Smallwood, J., Engen, H., & Singer, T. (2013). How self-generated thought of the Fixed Effects of Category, Attention, Desirability, and Intentionality on Current Mood Current Mood b SE t df p Thought Category (External) .48 .17 2.91 2266.25 .004** Attention .05 .02 2.67 2292.40 .008** Desirable