Dispositional factors account for age differences in self-reported mind-wandering

Further unpacking age-related differences in mind wandering: The roles of emotional valence and meta-awareness

Age-related differences in mind wandering are robust. However, previous work examining such differences rarely considered the specific content of participants' mind wandering. We sought to replicate prior work showing that older adults' reduced frequency of mind wandering is specific to negative and neutral thoughts, and extend this work by examining the role of perceived stress in this pattern. We also tested if older and younger adults differed in the meta-awareness of their emotionally valenced mind wandering. Older and younger adults completed a sustained attention task with periodic thought probes and were instructed to self-catch any instances of mind wandering they had during the task. Consistent with prior work, older adults reported less mind wandering overall. Critically, using thought probes, we replicated the specific pattern of an age-related reduction in negative and neutral mind-wandering reports, but similar rates of positive mind-wandering between age groups. Further, the age-related difference in negative mind wandering was still evident after accounting for participants' level of perceived stress. There were also age-related differences in participants' self-caught mind wandering. While older adults had fewer self-caught episodes overall, the age difference was largest for neutral reports and smallest for negative reports. Age-related differences in the processing of, and preference for, certain emotional information appear to be evident in participants' off-task thinking. Our findings highlight that age-related differences in mind wandering might not be consistent across different contents and that future work should consider mind-wandering content, such as emotional valence, when testing for age-related differences.

Using objective and subjective measures of mind wandering to predict progression to development of cognitive impairment and test associations with Alzheimer disease biomarkers

INTRODUCTION

Mind wandering decreases in healthy aging, and in some cases, it is further reduced in Alzheimer disease (AD). However, little is known about how mind wandering changes during the preclinical phase of AD, which is a critical period for intervention. The present study aims to provide novel evidence for the utility of objective and subjective measures of mind wandering in evaluating the risk of developing cognitive impairment and their association with AD biomarkers.

METHODS

Participants (N = 504; Mage = 69.54 years, SDage = 8.95 years) completed a Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART). We calculated objective (reaction time coefficient of variation; RT CoV) and subjective (self-reported frequency of off-task thoughts) mind wandering measures during the SART for participants who remained cognitively stable (N = 349) and those who eventually developed cognitive impairment (progressors; N = 155). A subset of participants (N = 211) completed the SART annually and had recent CSF biomarkers.

RESULTS

Objective and subjective mind wandering significantly differed between progressors and cognitively stable participants at baseline and predicted likelihoods of progression. Moreover, baseline subjective mind wandering predicted progression beyond standard neuropsychological measures. Longitudinal models indicated that biomarker negative, but not positive, participants showed a significant reduction in RT CoV over time, possibly reflecting practice-related changes in performance. There were no longitudinal associations with subjective mind wandering.

CONCLUSIONS

Mind wandering is a common activity and may reflect a healthy cognitive system in older age. Subjective measures of mind wandering may be useful in predicting the later onset of cognitive impairment, while objective measures may be more sensitive to longitudinal changes.

Mind-wandering when studying valuable information: The roles of age, dispositional traits, and contextual factors

The factors that trigger lapses of attention (e.g., mind-wandering) during new learning remain unclear. The present study investigated whether the likelihood of experiencing an attentional lapse depends on (a) the importance of the material being studied and (b) the learner's age. In two experiments, younger and older adults completed a delayed free recall task in which to-be-remembered words were paired with point values. Thought probes were embedded into the encoding phase of each list to provide an index of one's ability to maintain attention on task and prevent recurrent lapses of attention (i.e., the consistency of attention). Experiment 1 revealed all individuals better remembered high-value information at the expense of low-value information, and older adults were more frequently focused on the task than younger adults. Participants were also less likely to remember an item at test if they experienced an attentional lapse while learning said item, and they were more consistently focused on the task when studying high-value information than when studying low-value information. Age did not moderate either of these effects. Experiment 2 replicated the findings from Experiment 1 and further revealed that the positive association between age and attentional consistency was explained by age-related differences in affect, motivation, personality, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptomology. Once these factors were accounted for, older age was associated with increased attentional inconsistency (less on-task focus). While future replication of this finding is needed, implications for education and theories of both mind-wandering and aging are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Model-based Mind Wandering in Older Adults: Age Differences in the Behavioral and Electrophysiological Correlates of Subjective and Objective Measures of Mind Wandering

Mind wandering is typically characterized as a failure of attentional control, yet despite age-related executive function deficits, older adults typically report less mind wandering than younger adults during cognitive tasks and in daily life. Self-reported mind wandering episodes usually result in similar behavioral detriments in younger and older adults (e.g., greater RT variability, more task errors). However, the relatively few studies investigating the neural correlates of mind wandering and aging have revealed mixed findings, possibly because they typically rely on infrequent thought probes and, therefore, few trials for neural analyses. In the current study, we propose a method to recover more task data by categorizing trials from a commonly used sustained attention to response task according to RT variability. Behavioral data (n = 49 younger; n = 40 older) revealed that compared with younger adults, older adults reported fewer mind wandering episodes, but showed similar behavioral impacts thereof. Furthermore, in both age groups, subjective reports of mind wandering predicted the more objective sorting of trials into "on-" and "off-task" according to RT variability. Using these objectively sorted trials, we investigated two commonly reported EEG measures of mind wandering (diminished P1 and P3 amplitude) in 26 younger and 24 older adults. Although the P1 did not differ between on- and off-task trials for either group, the P3 was diminished for off-task trials in both age groups (albeit significantly less in older adults) suggesting preserved perceptual but reduced higher-order processing during off-task periods in both groups.

Cross-sectional and longitudinal changes in mind-wandering in older adulthood

Age-related declines in the frequency of mind-wandering are well established. Theories of mind-wandering have attempted to explain why this decline occurs, but no one theory firmly predicts such changes. One problem with these theoretical views, and the studies that have grown out of them, is their reliance on cross-sectional methods, which do not account for within-person changes over time in mind-wandering, and it is well-documented that cross-sectional and longitudinal changes in some cognitive domains do not align. We present a novel analysis of longitudinal change in subjective and objective indicators of mind-wandering during a sustained attention task. Cognitively normal adults (N = 277, age range 42-94) completed a sustained attention task with thought probes to measure mind-wandering repeatedly over several years. Linear mixed effect models revealed baseline differences in subjective mind-wandering reports among middle-aged and older adults. However, longitudinally, middle-aged participants showed a significant increase in subjective mind-wandering, whereas older participants showed no change. Changes in mind-wandering could not be explained by attentional control ability or contemporaneous estimates of interest and perceived difficulty, but they were explained by baseline levels of conscientiousness. Objective measures of mind-wandering did not show these same patterns and were largely only associated with participants perceived difficulty. Our results build on previous cross-sectional research and suggest that incorporating longitudinal analyses into theories of ageing and mind-wandering and mind-wandering more broadly is important for refining these theories. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Probing sustained attention and fatigue across the lifespan

Trait fatigues reflects tiredness that persists throughout a prolonged period, whereas state fatigue is a short-term reaction to intense or prolonged effort. We investigated the impact of sustained attention (using the SART) on both trait and state fatigue levels in the general population. An online version of the SART was undertaken by 115 participants, stratified across the whole adult lifespan. While pre-task trait fatigue was a strong indicator of the initial state fatigue levels, undergoing the task itself induced an increase in reported subjective state fatigue, and an accompanying reduction in subjective energy rating. Consistent with this finding, greater subjective state fatigue levels were associated with reduced accuracy. In addition, age was the best predictor of inter-participant accuracy (the older the participants, the greater the accuracy), and learning (i.e., task duration reducing reaction times). Moreover, a ceiling effect occurred where participants with higher trait fatigue did not experience greater state fatigue changes relative to those with low trait scores. In summary, we found improved accuracy in older adults, as well as a tight coupling between state fatigue and SART performance decline (in an online environment). The findings warrant further investigation into fatigue as a dynamic, task-dependent state and into SART performance as an objective measure and inducer of fatigue.

Positively framing mind wandering does not increase mind wandering in older adults

Age-related differences in mind wandering are robust, with older adults reporting less mind wandering compared to younger adults. While several theories have been put forth to explain this difference, one view has received less attention than others. Specifically, age-related differences in mind wandering might occur because older adults are reluctant to report on their mind wandering. The aim of the current study was to explicitly test this hypothesis. Older and younger adults completed a go/no-go task with intermittent thought probes to assess mind wandering. In one condition, participants were provided with standard instructions about how to respond to questions about their thoughts. In a second condition, participants were provided with a positive framing of mind wandering. Mind wandering was assessed both subjectively (i.e., via thought probes) and objectively (i.e., using different behavioral measures from the go/no-go task). The results of the study suggest that positively framing mind wandering did not impact rates of mind wandering or objective indicators of mind wandering for older or younger adults. Older adults reported less mind wandering, regardless of condition, compared to younger adults. Older adults also had generally better performance on the go/no-go task compared to younger adults. Bayesian analyses suggested that the main effect of framing condition, although not significant in Frequentist terms, did provide moderate evidence of an overall effect on mind wandering rates. We interpret the results as evidence against the reluctance hypothesis, consistent with previous work.

Antecedents of mind wandering states in healthy aging and mild cognitive impairment

OBJECTIVE

Mind wandering refers to periods of internally directed attention and comprises up to 30% or more of our waking thoughts. Frequent mind wandering can be detrimental to ongoing task performance. We aim to determine whether rates of mind wandering change in healthy aging and mild cognitive impairment and how differences in mind wandering contribute to differences in attention and working memory.

METHOD

We administered a standard behavioral task, the Sustained Attention to Response Test, to measure mind wandering in healthy younger adults (N = 66), healthy older adults (N = 51), and adults with cognitive impairment (N = 38), that was completed daily for 3 weeks. The N-back test was also administered at a reduced frequency as a measure of working memory performance.

RESULTS

Generally speaking, averaged across 3 weeks of testing, relative to healthy older adults, mind wandering was higher in younger adults and in cognitive impairment, although the specific patterns varied across mind wandering states. Multiple states of mind wandering also predicted working memory performance; however, reaction time variability tended to be the best predictor based on model comparisons. Each state was also modestly associated with different dispositional factors including mood and Agreeableness.

CONCLUSIONS

Patterns of mind wandering change across healthy aging and cognitive impairment and are related to individual differences in multiple dispositional factors and also working memory performance. These results suggest that different states of mind wandering should be measured and accounted for when modeling cognitive change in healthy and pathological aging. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Age-Related Differences in Mind Wandering: The Role of Emotional Valence

OBJECTIVES

Older adults consistently report fewer experiences of mind wandering compared to younger adults. Aging is also associated with a shift in the emotional focus of our thoughts, with older adults tending to experience an increase in attention toward positive information, or a "positivity bias," relative to younger adults. Here, we tested if the positivity bias associated with aging can also predict age-related changes in the content of older adults' mind wandering.

METHOD

Older adults and younger adults completed a go/no-go task with periodic thought probes to assess rates of emotionally valenced mind wandering.

RESULTS

Older adults reported significantly less negatively and neutrally valenced mind wandering compared to younger adults, but there was no age difference in reports of positively valenced mind wandering. Overall rates of mind wandering predicted poorer task performance for both age groups: Individuals who mind wandered more, performed worse, but this did not differ by the emotional valence. Both older adults and younger adults showed similar in-the-moment performance deficits, with mind wandering reports being associated with worse immediate no-go accuracy and faster reaction times, consistent with mindless responding.

DISCUSSION

Focusing on different dimensions of thought content, such as emotional valence, can provide new insight into age-related differences in mind wandering. Older adults' mind wandering reports were less negative and neutral compared to younger adults' reports suggesting a positivity bias for older adults. However, this positivity bias does not seem to affect task performance. We discuss the implications of the findings for mind wandering theories and the positivity bias.

Individual differences in the frequency of voluntary & involuntary episodic memories, future thoughts, and counterfactual thoughts

Voluntary and involuntary mental time travel can take the form of episodic memory, episodic future thinking, and episodic counterfactual thinking. This study uses an individual-differences approach to understand why people engage in these forms of mental time travel. The individual-differences variables include trait-level personality, boredom proneness, depression, anxiety, stress, emotion regulation, mindfulness, mind-wandering, positive and negative affect, rumination, optimism, thinking styles, and time perspective. Across two studies, our results indicate that individual differences underlie these forms of mental time travel. The most unique, episodic counterfactual thinking, was alone positively correlated with negative emotionality and negatively correlated with optimism. We also observe differences as a function of voluntariness and discuss these findings in relation to the cognitively demanding nature of constructing future and counterfactual thoughts. We discuss the importance of distinguishing voluntary from involuntary thinking and assessing episodic counterfactual thinking in relation to episodic memory and episodic future thinking.

Aging and task design shape the relationship between response time variability and emotional response inhibition

Intra-individual variability (IIV) refers to within-person variability in behavioural task responses. Several factors can influence IIV, including aging and cognitive demands. The present study investigated effects of aging on IIV of response times during executive functioning tasks. Known age-related differences in cognitive control and emotion processing motivated evaluating how varying the design of emotional response inhibition tasks would influence IIV in older and younger adults. We also tested whether IIV predicted inhibitory control across task designs and age groups. Older and younger adults (N = 237) completed one of three versions of a stop-signal task, which all displayed happy, fearful, or neutral faces in Stop trials. An independent group of older and younger adults (N = 80) completed a go/no-go task also employing happy, fearful and neutral faces. Results showed older adults had more consistent responses (lower IIV) than younger adults in the stop-signal task, but not the go/no-go task. Lower IIV predicted more efficient emotional response inhibition for fear faces in the stop-signal task, but only when attention to emotion was task-relevant. Collectively, this study clarifies effects of aging and task design on IIV and illustrates how task design impacts the relationship between IIV and emotional response inhibition in younger and older adults.

Reconceptualizing mind wandering from a switching perspective

Mind wandering is a universal phenomenon in which our attention shifts away from the task at hand toward task-unrelated thoughts. Despite it inherently involving a shift in mental set, little is known about the role of cognitive flexibility in mind wandering. In this article we consider the potential of cognitive flexibility as a mechanism for mediating and/or regulating the occurrence of mind wandering. Our review begins with a brief introduction to the prominent theories of mind wandering-the executive failure hypothesis, the decoupling hypothesis, the process-occurrence framework, and the resource-control account of sustained attention. Then, after discussing their respective merits and weaknesses, we put forward a new perspective of mind wandering focused on cognitive flexibility, which provides an account more in line with the data to date, including why older populations experience a reduction in mind wandering. After summarizing initial evidence prompting this new perspective, drawn from several mind-wandering and task-switching studies, we recommend avenues for future research aimed at further understanding the importance of cognitive flexibility in mind wandering.

Climacteric symptoms, age, and sense of coherence are associated with sexual function scores in women after menopause

BACKGROUND

Postmenopausal sexual function presupposes the integration of hormonal, neural, and vascular interactions and is subject to optimal crosstalk among psychological, interpersonal, cultural, and environmental factors. Sense of coherence (SOC) reflects a person's ability to cope with stressors and may influence the occurrence of menopausal symptoms and sexual dysfunction.

AIM

To investigate the association of severity of climacteric symptoms, cardiometabolic risk factors, and SOC with sexual function in postmenopausal women.

METHODS

Overall 281 sexually active postmenopausal women without significant psychopathology or cardiovascular disease attending the Menopause Unit of Aretaieion Hospital were evaluated by the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI), Greene Climacteric Scale, Beck Depression Scale, and Sense of Coherence Scale. Hormonal and biochemical parameters and cardiometabolic risk factors were evaluated. FSFI scores <26.5 were considered pathologic.

OUTCOMES

Total and subdomain scores of sexual response were determined.

RESULTS

Pathologic FSFI scores were found in 79.7% of the sample. Linear models of multivariable regression analysis showed that FSFI scores were associated with (1) Beck scores (b  = -0.200; 95% CI, -0.472 to -0.073, P = .001), vasomotor symptom severity (b = -0.324; 95% CI, -0.985 to 0.051; P < .001), and age and (2) SOC (b = 0.150, 95% CI, 0.036-0.331; P = .008), vasomotor symptom severity (b = -0.361; 95% CI, -0.743 to 0.245; P < .001), and age. Both models were adjusted for menopausal age, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, type of menopause, and menopausal hormone therapy intake. SOC was associated with Beck depression scores (β = -0.487, P < .001; Greene Climacteric Scale total scores, β = -0.199, P < .001). FSFI score <26.5 vs >26.5 was associated with SOC (odds ratio, 0.982; 95% CI, 0.563 to 1.947; P = .006) and moderate to severe vasomotor symptom severity (odds ratio, 2.476; 95% CI, 1.478 to 3.120; P = .009) independent of age, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, menopausal hormone therapy intake, type of menopause, or Beck depression classification.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

The results indicate the importance of psychometric assessment of postmenopausal women when presenting with scores of low sexual function. The severity of vasomotor symptoms should also be addressed in any case.

STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS

This is the first study investigating the relationship between SOC and sexuality in menopause in a carefully selected homogenous population. Limitations included the cross-sectional design and the fact that sexual distress was not assessed.

CONCLUSIONS

Pathologic FSFI scores were highly prevalent in this sample of postmenopausal women. FSFI is associated positively with age and severity of vasomotor symptoms and negatively with SOC.

Wakeful Rest Benefits Recall, but Not Recognition, of Incidentally Encoded Memory Stimuli in Younger and Older Adults

Older adults exhibit deficits in episodic memory tasks, which have often been attributed to encoding or retrieval deficits, with little attention to consolidation mechanisms. More recently, researchers have attempted to measure consolidation in the context of a behavioral experiment using the wakeful rest paradigm (i.e., a brief, quiet period of minimal stimulation, which facilitates memory performance, compared to a distractor task). Critically, older adults might not produce this effect, given established age differences in other episodic memory processes and mind-wandering. In three experiments, we directly compared younger and older adults in modified versions of the wakeful rest paradigm. Critically, we utilized incidental encoding procedures (all experiments) and abstract shape stimuli (in Experiment 3) to limit the possibility of retrieval practice or maintenance rehearsal as potential confounding mechanisms in producing the wakeful rest effect. Wakeful rest reliably and equally benefited recall of incidentally encoded words in both younger and older adults. In contrast, wakeful rest had no benefit for standard accuracy measures of recognition performance in verbal stimuli, although there was an effect in response latencies for non-verbal stimuli. Overall, these results suggest that the benefits of wakeful rest on episodic retrieval are preserved across age groups, and hence support age-independence in potential consolidation mechanisms as measured by wakeful rest. Further, these benefits do not appear to be dependent on the intentionality of encoding or variations in distractor task types. Finally, the lack of wakeful rest benefits on recognition performance might be driven by theoretical constraints on the effect or methodological limitations of recognition memory testing in the current paradigm.

Life Skills Link to Mind Wandering Among University Students: An Exploratory Study

The occurrence of mind wandering (MW) leads to lower performance on memory tasks related to lecture contents in educational settings, which has been recognized as problematic. To date, several dispositional factors have been reported as being associated with MW. This study investigated whether another psychological component—life skills—is linked to MW. Specifically, it clarified the relationship between life skills and two types of MW: state MW (occurs while performing a given task) and trait MW (occurs subjectively in daily life), using a sample of university students. From the perspective of cognitive and emotional control functions, life skills are thought to be related to the occurrence of MW. In addition to common questionnaire surveys, by recording and analyzing the participants' self-reports for MW occurrence during the experimental task, we clarified not only the quantitative associations among the variables but also the qualitative differences. Multiple regression analysis for the data from 53 students showed that decision-making and coping-with-emotion skills are negatively related to the occurrence of mind wandering. The qualitative data additionally revealed that participants with high decision-making skills are more likely than those with low decision-making skills to attempt to maintain their concentration on the task by thinking about task execution. These results suggest that life skills are associated with MW and that the ability to inhibit MW may be enhanced by improving life skills because they comprise acquired, learnable behaviors and attitudes. Life skills training may help in reducing students' MW in educational contexts.