title: Trauma-related versus positive involuntary thoughts with and without meta-awareness.
abstract: In earlier work, we asked subjects to report involuntary thoughts relating to a trauma film and also probed subjects periodically. Subjects often reported involuntary thoughts in response to probes, suggesting they lacked meta-awareness of those thoughts. But it is possible that some or all probe-detected thoughts were continuations of thoughts subjects had spontaneously reported, leading us to overestimate involuntary thoughts lacking meta-awareness. It is also unclear whether failures in meta-awareness occur for other emotional events. We exposed subjects to a negative or positive film. Subsequently, they reported involuntary film-related thoughts and responded to probes that distinguished new from continuing thoughts. Many (54%) but not all probe-caught thoughts were thought continuations. This result supports our earlier finding that people can lack meta-awareness for trauma-related thoughts, but suggests caution in how meta-awareness is assessed. We also found that self-caught negative and positive involuntary thoughts occurred at a similar frequency, with different characteristics.
authors.affiliation: Flinders University, School of Psychology, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, 5001 SA, Australia.
authors.forename: Deanne M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Green
authors.affiliation: John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, Department of Psychology, 445 West 59th St, New York, NY 10019, USA.
authors.forename: Deryn
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Strange
authors.affiliation: University of Victoria, Department of Psychology, P.O. Box 1700 STN CSC, Victoria, B.C. V8W 2Y2, Canada.
authors.forename: D Stephen
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Lindsay
authors.affiliation: Flinders University, School of Psychology, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, 5001 SA, Australia. Electronic address: melanie.takarangi@flinders.edu.au.
authors.forename: Melanie K T
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Takarangi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000067489:Metacognition / Q000502:physiology*; D000067073:Psychological Trauma / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Emotion; Intrusions; Meta-awareness; Mind-wandering