If You're Happy and You Know It: Concentrate!

The phenomenon of mind wandering involves a situation in which a person's executive control switches from the current task to unrelated thoughts (Smallwood & Schooler, 2006). Previous research has indicated that individuals mind wander more often when they are in negative moods than when they are happier (Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010; Smallwood, 2009). One theory of mind wandering, the Working Memory Capacity Theory, claims that participants with a lower working memory capacity (WMC) experience more mind wandering during a challenging primary task than participants with a higher WMC because those with higher WMC can better use their executive control to remain on task than individuals with lower WMC (Kane et al., 2007; McVay & Kane, 2009). The current study investigated the relationship between mood and both the frequency and the content of mind wandering. It also expanded upon past research by addressing whether WMC impacts the valence of task unrelated thoughts. Results showed that participants in an unpleasant mood demonstrated more task unrelated mind wandering than those in a pleasant mood, consistent with the past literature. In addition, participants in an unpleasant mood reported more unpleasant thoughts than those in a pleasant mood. When the sample was divided into high and low WMC groups, the low WMC group reported more non-task-related thoughts while completing the word search than the high WMC group. Participants with a lower WMC also demonstrated more negative thoughts than those with a higher WMC particularly when thinking about how they were performing on the word search task. MOOD AND MIND WANDERING 3 IfYou're Happy and You Know It: Concentrate! Imagine sitting down for a weekly work meeting and, suddenly, you realize that the entire conference room is awaiting a response from you. You frantically wrack your brain trying to remember what discussion was previously taking place, but your mind has been wandering to evening plans. Or perhaps you are in the middle of your Biology final only to realize you have read the same question five times without ever really registering what the question says. In our everyday lives, we often intend to perform a task only to realize a few moments later that our minds have drifted to a different place. Executive control is the cognitive process that helps individuals to perform tasks despite distractors (McVay & Kane, 2009). The phenomenon of mind wandering involves a situation in which executive control switches from the current task to unrelated thoughts (Smallwood & Schooler, 2006). The prevalence of mind wandering has been difficult to determine in past research. Reported cases of mind wandering range from 33% to 46.9% of thoughts during daily activities and 43% during experimental laboratory tasks (Christoff, Gordan, Smallwood, Smith, & Schooler, 2009; Kane, Brown, McVay, Myin-Germeys, & Kwapil, 2007; Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010). Generally, individuals are not surprised to realize when they have been mind wandering, yet nearly half are unaware of where their attention has wandered to (Christoff et a1., 2009; Kane et a1., 2007). Past research has also indicated that individuals' minds are more likely to wander when they are performing a task with cues to their personal lives (McVay & Kane, 2009). These findings seem to indicate that mind wandering is an everyday occurrence, but the exact causes of mind wandering are under debate. MOOD AND MIND WANDERING 4 Two of the more prominent theories regarding mind wandering focus on working memory perceptual load and working memory capacity. The Perceptual Load Theory purports a belief that mind wandering depends on the amount of attention available (Forster & Lavie, 2009). This theory claims that mind wandering can be prevented when the primary task involves high working memory perceptual load due to less attention being available for other thoughts. Previous research has indeed supported this theory by finding that increasing perceptual load results in fewer task-unrelated thoughts (Forster & Lavie, 2009; Smallwood, Nind, & O'Connor, 2009). In contrast, the Working Memory Capacity Theory of mind wandering states that the occurrence of mind wandering depends on individual differences in working memory abilities. Participants with a lower working memory capacity (WMC) are expected to experience more mind wandering during a challenging primary task than participants with a higher WMC (McVay & Kane, 2009) because those with a higher WMC can better use their executive control to remain on task than individuals with a lower WMC (Kane et al., 2007). In a study that tested both the perceptual load and the working memory capacity theories, McVay and Kane (2009) found stronger support for the working memory capacity theory. Other research has taken a more direct look at the content of mind wandering as well as the relationship between one's mood and the frequency of mind wandering. These studies have demonstrated that people's minds more often wander to pleasant thoughts than to unpleasant or neutral thoughts (Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010). In scenarios where individuals' performances are not continuously monitored, they are more likely to think about future events rather than the past (Smallwood et al., 2009). In examining the MOOD AND MIND WANDERING 5 relationship between mood and mind wandering, Kane et a1. (2007) found that individuals tend to mind wander more when they are fatigued, bored, or stressed. Other studies have similarly demonstrated that individuals mind wander more often when they are in less happy, more negative moods than when they are happier (Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010; Smallwood, Fitzgerald, Lyden, & Phillips, 2009). Previous research has explored the content of mind wandering and the extent to which mood affects the frequency of mind wandering. However, no previous studies have examined the effect mood exerts on the content of mind wandering. This study investigated the relationship between positive and negative moods and both the frequency and the content of mind wandering. It also expanded upon past research by addressing whether WMC impacts the valence of task unrelated thoughts. Hypotheses I had three primary hypotheses regarding the outcomes of this study. The first hypothesis was that, consistent with the past literature, individuals in a positive mood would experience less mind wandering than individuals in a negative mood. My second hypothesis was that a mood congruency effect would emerge such that individuals in a positive mood would report more pleasant thoughts while mind wandering and those in a negative mood would report more unpleasant thoughts during mind wandering. My third hypothesis was that, consistent with previous studies, individuals with a higher WMC would experience less mind wandering than those with a lower WMC. However, this study also examined whether the emotional valence of mind wandering differed based on