Cognition can unfold with little regard to the events taking place in the environment, and such self-generated mental activity poses a specific set of challenges for its scientific analysis in both ...cognitive science and neuroscience. One problem is that the spontaneous onset of self-generated mental activity makes it hard to distinguish the events that
control the occurrence of the experience
from those
processes that ensure the continuity of an internal train of thought once initiated
. This review demonstrates that a distinction between process and occurrence (a) provides theoretical clarity that has been absent from current discussions of self-generated mental activity, (b) affords conceptual leverage on seemingly disparate results associating the state with both domain-general processes and task error, and (c) draws attention to important questions for understanding unconstrained thought in contexts such as psychopathology and education. It is suggested that identifying the moment that self-generated mental events begin is a necessary next step in moving toward a testable account of why the mind has evolved to neglect the present in favor of ruminations on the past or imaginary musings of what may yet come to pass.
When the mind wanders, conscious thoughts come to mind that are only loosely related to the task being performed. This phenomenon produces tension within the cognitive sciences because the ...interfering nature of these thoughts is at odds with the assumption that such processes are functional in daily life. In their comment,
McVay and Kane (2010)
suggested that failures in executive control can create the conditions that favor mind wandering-a
control-failure hypothesis
that questions whether mind wandering consumes resources. Whether mind wandering always occurs following a control failure, it is always a conscious reportable experience and so is globally available to the system. Such global availability suggests that mind wandering does indeed demand resources, in particular access to a global workspace that supports conscious experience. Although the control-failure view explains the transient occurrence of mind wandering during demanding tasks, the
global availability hypothesis
is consistent with all mind wandering, regardless of context; it is implied by many features of the argument proposed by
McVay and Kane (2010)
. Consideration of these issues leads to the conclusion that when the mind wanders, specific information from the default mode becomes globally available to the system; in this respect, mind wandering is resource demanding inasmuch as it occupies the global workspace necessary for consciousness.
Conscious experience is fluid; it rarely remains on one topic for an extended period without deviation. Its dynamic nature is illustrated by the experience of mind wandering, in which attention ...switches from a current task to unrelated thoughts and feelings. Studies exploring the phenomenology of mind wandering highlight the importance of its content and relation to meta-cognition in determining its functional outcomes. Examination of the information-processing demands of the mind-wandering state suggests that it involves perceptual decoupling to escape the constraints of the moment, its content arises from episodic and affective processes, and its regulation relies on executive control. Mind wandering also involves a complex balance of costs and benefits: Its association with various kinds of error underlines its cost, whereas its relationship to creativity and future planning suggest its potential value. Although essential to the stream of consciousness, various strategies may minimize the downsides of mind wandering while maintaining its productive aspects.
When the mind wanders to unrelated thoughts and feelings while reading, the eyes often continue to scan the words without due attention to their meaning. This mindless reading, similar to states such ...as daydreaming or absentminded lapses, is a state of decoupled processing in which attention to ongoing perceptual information is reduced often in favor of the active consideration of internally generated thoughts and feelings. Normal reading involves a complex interaction between bottom‐up representations of the text that is being read and top‐down representations of the more general context that help to keep the readers mind on what they are doing. Since states of decoupling involve a reduced processing of sensory information, the coupling between the reader and the text breaks down during mindless reading. This reduced external coupling is one reason why mind‐wandering during reading has significant implications for reading comprehension. Following the presentation of a model of the decoupled state and a specific consideration of mind‐wandering during reading, five key unresolved issues for future research in mindless reading are identified.
The default mode network (DMN) is a set of widely distributed brain regions in the parietal, temporal and frontal cortex. These regions often show reductions in activity during attention-demanding ...tasks but increase their activity across multiple forms of complex cognition, many of which are linked to memory or abstract thought. Within the cortex, the DMN has been shown to be located in regions furthest away from those contributing to sensory and motor systems. Here, we consider how our knowledge of the topographic characteristics of the DMN can be leveraged to better understand how this network contributes to cognition and behaviour.
Though only a decade has elapsed since the default network (DN) was first defined as a large‐scale brain system, recent years have brought great insight into the network's adaptive functions. A ...growing theme highlights the DN as playing a key role in internally directed or self‐generated thought. Here, we synthesize recent findings from cognitive science, neuroscience, and clinical psychology to focus attention on two emerging topics as current and future directions surrounding the DN. First, we present evidence that self‐generated thought is a multifaceted construct whose component processes are supported by different subsystems within the network. Second, we highlight the dynamic nature of the DN, emphasizing its interaction with executive control systems when regulating aspects of internal thought. We conclude by discussing clinical implications of disruptions to the integrity of the network, and consider disorders when thought content becomes polarized or network interactions become disrupted or imbalanced.
► Planning for personal future goals as a possible function of mind-wandering. ► Mind-wandering is predominately future focused. ► Individuals with high working memory capacity are more likely to ...mind-wander about the future. ► Mind-wandering frequently involves future autobiographical planning. ► Mind-wandering enables cognitive operations that are likely to be useful to the individual.
Given that as much as half of human thought arises in a stimulus independent fashion, it would seem unlikely that such thoughts would play no functional role in our lives. However, evidence linking the mind-wandering state to performance decrement has led to the notion that mind-wandering primarily represents a form of cognitive failure. Based on previous work showing a prospective bias to mind-wandering, the current study explores the hypothesis that one potential function of spontaneous thought is to plan and anticipate personally relevant future goals, a process referred to as autobiographical planning. The results confirm that the content of mind-wandering is predominantly future-focused, demonstrate that individuals with high working memory capacity are more likely to engage in prospective mind-wandering, and show that prospective mind-wandering frequently involves autobiographical planning. Together this evidence suggests that mind-wandering can enable prospective cognitive operations that are likely to be useful to the individual as they navigate through their daily lives.
The categorisation of long-term memory into semantic and episodic systems has been an influential catalyst for research on human memory organisation. However, the impact of variable cognitive control ...demands on this classical distinction remains to be elucidated. Across two independent experiments, here we directly compare neural processes for the controlled versus automatic retrieval of semantic and episodic memory. In a multi-session functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment, we first identify a common cluster of cortical activity centred on the left inferior frontal gyrus and anterior insular cortex for the retrieval of both weakly-associated semantic and weakly-encoded episodic memory traces. In an independent large-scale individual difference study, we further reveal a common neural circuitry in which reduced functional interaction between the identified cluster and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, a default mode network hub, is linked to better performance across both memory types. Our results provide evidence for shared neural processes supporting the controlled retrieval of information from functionally distinct long-term memory systems.
Mind wandering seems to be a prototypical feature of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, an important emerging distinction of mind-wandering types hinges on whether a given ...episode of mind wandering reflects a failure of executive control (spontaneous mind wandering) or the engagement of controlled processes for internal processing (deliberate mind wandering). Here we distinguish between spontaneous and deliberate mind wandering and test the hypothesis that symptoms of ADHD are associated with the former but not the latter. We assessed ADHD symptomatology and everyday levels of deliberate and spontaneous mind wandering in two large non-clinical samples (
Ns
= 1,354). In addition, to provide converging evidence, we examined rates of deliberate and spontaneous mind wandering in a clinically diagnosed ADHD sample. Results provide clear evidence that spontaneous, but not deliberate, mind wandering is a central feature of ADHD symptomatology at both the clinical and non-clinical level. We discuss the implications of these results for understanding both ADHD and mind wandering.
Although many different accounts of the functions of the default mode network (DMN) have been proposed, few can adequately account for the spectrum of different cognitive functions that utilize this ...network. The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore the hypothesis that the role of the DMN in higher order cognition is to allow cognition to be shaped by information from stored representations rather than information in the immediate environment. Using a novel task paradigm, we observed increased BOLD activity in regions of the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex when individuals made decisions on the location of shapes from the prior trial and decreased BOLD activity when individuals made decisions on the location of shapes on the current trial. These data are inconsistent with views of the DMN as a task-negative system or one that is sensitive only to stimuli with strong personal or emotional ties. Instead the involvement of the DMN when people make decisions about where a shape was, rather than where it is now, supports the hypothesis that the core hubs of the DMN allow cognition to be guided by information other than the immediate perceptual input. We propose that a variety of different forms of higher order thought (such as imagining the future or considering the perspective of another person) engage the DMN because these more complex introspective forms of higher order thought all depend on the capacity for cognition to be shaped by representations that are not present in the external environment.
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