title: Imprisoned by the past: unhappy moods lead to a retrospective bias to mind wandering.
abstract: Evidence suggests that mind wandering is a frequent accompaniment to an unhappy mood. Building on such work, two laboratory experiments used mood induction to assess whether the greater frequency of mind wandering in a low mood is also accompanied by a shift towards a focus on events from the past. Experiment 1 induced moods via video and induction of an unhappy mood was associated with a greater tendency for past-related mind wandering as measured by a post-task questionnaire. In Experiment 2, negative and positive moods were induced in a group of participants using the Velten mood-induction procedure and the temporal focus of mind wandering was measured using experience sampling probes. Analyses indicated that induction of an unhappy mood led to an increase in past-related mind wandering and the magnitude of this change increased with scores on a measure of depressive symptoms. Together these experiments suggest that when the mind wanders in an unhappy mood it is drawn to events from its past.
authors: Department of Social Neuroscience, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA. jonsmallwood2004@yahoo.com
authors: Jonathan
authors: J
authors: Smallwood
authors: Rory C
authors: RC
authors: O'Connor
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011287:Prejudice; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D013850:Thinking