Poerio, G.L, Totterdell, P and Miles, E (2013) Mind-wandering and negative mood: Does one thing really lead to another? Consciousness and Cognition, 22 (4). 1412 - 1421. ISSN 1053-8100
Abstract
Mind-wandering is closely connected with negative mood. Whether negative mood is a cause or consequence of mind-wandering remains an important, unresolved, issue. We sought to clarify the direction of this relationship by measuring mood before and after mind-wandering. We also measured the affective content, time-orientation and relevance of mind-wandering to current concerns to explore whether the link between mind-wandering and negative mood might be explained by these characteristics. A novel experience- sampling technique with smartphone application prompted participants to answer questions about mind-wandering and mood across 7 days. While sadness tended to precede mind-wandering, mind-wandering itself was not associated with later mood and only predicted feeling worse if its content was negative. We also found prior sadness predicted retrospective mind-wandering, and prior negative mood predicted mind-wandering to current concerns. Our findings provide new insight into how mood and mind-wandering relate but suggest mind-wandering is not inherently detrimental to well-being.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2014 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Mind-wandering; Negative mood; Mental time travel; Current concerns; Experience sampling |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number ESRC RES-060-25-0044 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 06 May 2014 14:16 |
Last Modified: | 06 May 2014 14:16 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2013.09.012 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.concog.2013.09.012 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:78815 |