Mind-Wandering Mediates the Associations Between Neuroticism and Conscientiousness, and Tendencies Towards Smartphone Use Disorder.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Muller M
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8435592 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:The present study investigates links between fear of COVID-19, the personality trait of neuroticism, social networks use disorder, and smartphone use disorder (SNUD and SmUD, respectively) tendencies. In an online survey, N = 932 participants recruited at a Chinese University (237 males and 695 females) completed self-reports on fear of COVID-19, neuroticism (and other personality traits from the Big Five Inventory-44), the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (assessing tendencies toward SNUD), and the Smartphone Addiction Scale short version-assessing individual differences in tendencies toward SmUD. Our findings showed that all variables of main interest were positively correlated with each other. A mediation model suggested that SNUD (in parts) mediated the association between fear of COVID-19 and SmUD. Although neuroticism was robustly correlated with all mentioned variables, no moderation effect could be observed on the investigated fear-of-COVID-19-SNUD-link. The findings of this work provide further evidence that the smartphone itself is only a device giving individuals access to software applications, which might be excessively used. Beyond that, the present data indicate neuroticism to be a risk factor with respect to fear of COVID-19, SNUD, and SmUD, although the study is limited by its cross-sectional study design.
| S-EPMC8366062 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Introduction:The present study sought to address core issues in the association between personality and the putative disordered use of Facebook. First, to redress the issue of generalisation from samples solely recruited from Facebook, we sought to explore personality differences between users and non-users of Facebook. Second, we aimed to investigate associations between personality and Facebook Use Disorder. The present study contributes a novel perspective to extant research on this topic by moving beyond the broad Big Five of personality, to explore possible relationships between Facebook use and sub-facets of the Big Five; all analyses were additionally controlled for confounding effects of demographic variables. Methods:3,835 (n = 2,366 males) participants completed socio-demographic variables, the Big Five Inventory and stated their user status on Facebook (i.e. user versus non-user). Facebook-users also completed a Facebook Use Disorder scale assessing addictive tendencies towards Facebook use. Results:Facebook users reported higher levels of extraversion and lower levels of conscientiousness compared to non-users. Tendencies towards Facebook Use Disorder correlated negatively with conscientiousness and positively with neuroticism in both males and females. Conclusions:The present results indicate that research samples drawn from Facebook users may be biased with regard to personality (extraversion, conscientiousness). Moreover, certain personality traits - conscientiousness and neuroticism - which may influence the tendency towards Facebook Use Disorder are discussed.
| S-EPMC7244926 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This study demonstrates that rumination is reflected in two behavioural signals that both play an important role in face-to-face interactions and provides evidence for the negative impact of rumination on social cognition. Sixty-one students were randomly assigned either to a condition in which rumination was induced or to a control condition. Their task was to play a speech-based word association game with an Embodied Conversational Agent during which their word associations, pitch imitation and eye movements were measured. Two questionnaires assessed their ruminative tendencies and mind wandering thoughts, respectively. Rumination predicted differences in task-related mind wandering, polarity of lexical associations, pitch imitation, and blinks while mind wandering predicted differences in saccades. This outcome may show that rumination has a negative impact on certain aspects of social interactions.
| S-EPMC6242373 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundSocial communication via instant messaging (IM) and social networking (SN) apps makes up a large part of the time that smartphone users spend on their devices. Previous research has indicated that the excessive use of these apps is positively associated with problematic smartphone use behaviors. In particular, image-based SN apps, such as Instagram (Facebook Inc) and Snapchat (Snap Inc), have been shown to exert stronger detrimental effects than those exerted by traditional apps, such as Facebook (Facebook Inc) and Twitter (Twitter Inc).ObjectiveIn this study, we investigated the correlation between individuals' tendencies toward smartphone use disorder (SmUD) and objective measures of the frequency of smartphone usage. Additionally, we put to test the hypothesis that the pathway linking the frequency of actual smartphone usage to self-reported tendencies toward SmUD was mediated by the increased frequency of IM and SN app usage.MethodsWe recruited a sample of 124 adult smartphone users (females: 78/124, 62.9%; age: mean 23.84 years, SD 8.29 years) and collected objective information about the frequency of smartphone and SN app usage over 1 week. Participants also filled in a self-report measure for assessing the multiple components of tendencies toward SmUD. Bivariate associations were investigated by using Spearman correlation analyses. A parallel mediation analysis was conducted via multiple regression analysis.ResultsThe frequency of smartphone usage, as well as the use of IM apps (Messenger, Telegram, and WhatsApp [Facebook Inc]), Facebook, and image-based apps (Instagram and Snapchat), had significant positive associations with at least 1 component of SmUD, and the cyberspace-oriented relationships factor exhibited the strongest associations overall. We found support for an indirect effect that linked actual smartphone usage to SmUD tendencies via the frequency of the use of image-based SN apps.ConclusionsOur novel results shed light on the factors that promote SmUD tendencies and essentially indicate that image-based SN apps seem to be more strongly associated with problematic smartphone behaviors compared to IM apps and traditional SN apps, such as Facebook.
| S-EPMC8517811 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Changes in mind-wandering (MW) and involuntary autobiographical memory (IAM) in dysphoria have been explored with conflicting results. The aim of this study was to evaluate both MW and IAM in a group of 23 stable dysphoric participants compared to 37 controls and to compare their thoughts characteristics (i.e., specificity, visual perspective, time orientation, and emotional valence). To make this study comparable with previous research, we used two different monotonous vigilance tasks (with and without verbal interference stimuli). Our results showed a significantly greater focus on MW thoughts in dysphoria. The characteristics of spontaneous thoughts content did not differ significantly between our dysphoric participants and controls, which is not in favor of strong emotional dysfunction. Our results suggest a difficulty to regulate the occurrence of self-generated thoughts rather than their content, that may confer to dysphoric subjects increased cognitive risk to develop a major depressive episode.
| S-EPMC7533624 | biostudies-literature
Project description:A significant body of literature supports the contention that pupil size varies depending on cognitive load, affective state, and level of drowsiness. Here we assessed whether oculometric measures such as gaze position, blink frequency and pupil size were correlated with the occurrence and time course of self-reported mind-wandering episodes. We recorded the pupil size of two subjects engaged in a monotonous breath counting task while keeping their eyes on a fixation cross. This task is conducive to producing mind-wandering episodes. Each subject performed ten 20-min sessions, for total duration of about 4 h. Subjects were instructed to report spontaneous mind-wandering episodes by pressing a button when they lost count of their breath. After each button press, subjects filled in a short questionnaire describing the characteristics of their mind-wandering episode. We observed larger pupil size during the breath-focusing period compared to the mind-wandering period (p < 0.01 for both subjects). Our findings contradict previous research showing a higher baseline pupil size during mind wandering episodes in visual tasks. We discuss possible explanations for this discrepancy. We also analyzed nine other oculometric measures including blink rate, blink duration and gaze position. We built a support vector machine (SVM) classifier and showed that mean pupil size was the most reliable predictor of mind wandering in both subjects. The classification accuracy of mind wandering data segments vs. breath-focusing data segments was 81% for the first subject and 77% for the second subject. Additionally, we analyzed oculometric measures in light of the phenomenological data collected in the questionnaires. We showed that how well subjects remembered their thoughts while mind wandering was positively correlated with pupil size (subject 1, p < 0.001; subject 2, p < 0.05). Feelings of well being were also positively correlated with pupil size (subject 1, p < 0.001; subject 2, p < 0.001). Our results suggest that oculometric data could be used as a neurocognitive marker of mind-wandering episodes.
| S-EPMC3920102 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveThis study investigates excessive mind wandering (MW) in adult ADHD using a new scale: the Mind Excessively Wandering Scale (MEWS).MethodData from two studies of adult ADHD was used in assessing the psychometric properties of the MEWS. Case-control differences in MW, the association with ADHD symptoms, and the contribution to functional impairment were investigated.ResultsThe MEWS functioned well as a brief measure of excessive MW in adult ADHD, showing good internal consistency (α > .9), and high sensitivity (.9) and specificity (.9) for the ADHD diagnosis, comparable with that of existing ADHD symptom rating scales. Elevated levels of MW were found in adults with ADHD, which contributed to impairment independently of core ADHD symptom dimensions.ConclusionFindings suggest excessive MW is a common co-occurring feature of adult ADHD that has specific implications for the functional impairments experienced. The MEWS has potential utility as a screening tool in clinical practice to assist diagnostic assessment.
| S-EPMC6429624 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We recently reported increased mind wandering (MW) frequency in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) relative to controls during high demands on sustained attention, reflecting deficient context regulation of MW. Studies on community samples previously linked context regulation of MW with attenuation in brain sensory processes, reflecting perceptual decoupling, and attentional processes during MW compared to task focus. However, the association between deficient context regulation of MW and these neural processes has not been studied in ADHD. We addressed this question by comparing adults with ADHD (N = 23) and controls (N = 25) on event-related potentials of early sensory processes (P1) and attention allocation (P3) during tasks manipulating cognitive demands (high vs low) on working memory and sustained attention, and during periods of MW and task focus measured through experience-sampling. Compared to controls, adults with ADHD showed reduced P1 during high sustained attention demands, as well as reduced P3 during high working memory demands. These group differences were no longer significant after adding MW frequency as a covariate. Across tasks, adults with ADHD showed no differences from controls on the P1 during MW episodes, but attenuated P1 during task focus. P3 was reduced in adults with ADHD compared to controls during MW, but not during task focus during the sustained attention task. These findings converge to indicate that impairments in early sensory processing in individuals with ADHD seem parallel to increased MW frequency and might reflect inefficient adjustments from periods of MW to task focus.
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Project description:Mind-wandering refers to the process of thinking task-unrelated thoughts while performing a task. The dynamics of mind-wandering remain elusive because it is difficult to track when someone's mind is wandering based only on behavior. The goal of this study is to develop a machine-learning classifier that can determine someone's mind-wandering state online using electroencephalography (EEG) in a way that generalizes across tasks. In particular, we trained machine-learning models on EEG markers to classify the participants' current state as either mind-wandering or on-task. To be able to examine the task generality of the classifier, two different paradigms were adopted in this study: a sustained attention to response task (SART) and a visual search task. In both tasks, probe questions asking for a self-report of the thoughts at that moment were inserted at random moments, and participants' responses to the probes were used to create labels for the classifier. The 6 trials preceding an off-task response were labeled as mind-wandering, whereas the 6 trials predicting an on-task response were labeled as on-task. The EEG markers used as features for the classifier included single-trial P1, N1, and P3, the power and coherence in the theta (4-8 Hz) and alpha (8.5-12 Hz) bands at PO7, Pz, PO8, and Fz. We used a support vector machine as the training algorithm to learn the connection between EEG markers and the current mind-wandering state. We were able to distinguish between on-task and off-task thinking with an accuracy ranging from 0.50 to 0.85. Moreover, the classifiers were task-general: The average accuracy in across-task prediction was 60%, which was above chance level. Among all the extracted EEG markers, alpha power was most predictive of mind-wandering.
| S-EPMC6711882 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Although mind wandering during reading is known to be affected by text difficulty, the nature of this relationship is not yet fully understood. To examine this issue, we conducted an experiment in which participants read non-fiction texts that varied along five levels of difficulty under naturalistic conditions. Difficulty levels were determined based on Flesch-Kincaid Grade Levels and verified with Coh-Metrix indices. Mind wandering was measured with thought probes. We predicted that text difficulty and mind wandering have a U-shaped (i.e., quadratic) relationship. Contrary to our expectations, but in line with some prior studies, mind wandering linearly increased with text difficulty. Additionally, text interest moderated the effect of text difficulty on mind wandering. Finally, mind wandering was associated with worse performance on a comprehension test. Together, our findings extend previous work by showing that (a) a linear relationship between difficulty and mind wandering exists during common page-by-page reading of pre-existing texts and that (b) this relationship holds across a broad range of difficulty levels.
| S-EPMC8821482 | biostudies-literature