title: Temporal focus, temporal distance, and mind-wandering valence: Results from an experience sampling and an experimental study.
abstract: When mind-wandering, people may think about events that happened in the past, or events that may happen in the future. Using experience sampling, we first aimed to replicate the finding that future-oriented thoughts show a greater positivity bias than past-oriented thoughts. Furthermore, we investigated whether there is a relation between the temporal distance of past- and future-oriented thoughts and the frequency of positive thoughts, a factor that has received little attention in previous work. Second, we experimentally investigated the relation between temporal focus, temporal distance, and thought valence. Both studies showed that future-oriented thoughts were more positive compared to past-oriented thoughts. Regarding temporal distance, thoughts about the distant past and future were more positive than thoughts about the near past and future in the experiment. However, the experience sampling study did not provide clear insight into this relation. Potential theoretical and methodological explanations for these findings are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Postbus 9104, 6500 HE Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: m.spronken@psych.ru.nl.
authors.forename: Maitta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Spronken
authors.affiliation: Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Postbus 9104, 6500 HE Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: r.holland@psych.ru.nl.
authors.forename: Rob W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Holland
authors.affiliation: Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Postbus 9104, 6500 HE Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, The Netherlands. Electronic address: b.figner@psych.ru.nl.
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Figner
authors.affiliation: Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Postbus 9104, 6500 HE Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: a.dijksterhuis@psych.ru.nl.
authors.forename: Ap
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dijksterhuis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D000072860:Ecological Momentary Assessment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*; D013995:Time; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Experience sampling; Happiness; Mental time travel; Mind-wandering; Positivity bias; Temporal distance; Temporal focus; Thought valence