TY - JOUR
T1 - Mind-wandering across the age gap
T2 - Age-related differences in mind-wandering are partially attributable to age-related differences in motivation
AU - Seli, Paul
AU - O'Neill, Kevin
AU - Carriere, Jonathan S.A.
AU - Smilek, Daniel
AU - Beaty, Roger E.
AU - Schacter, Daniel L.
N1 - Funding Information:
D. Smilek and J. S. A. Carriere were supported by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council discovery grants 06459 and 06749, respectively. D. L. Schacter was supported by a National Institute on Aging grant R01 AG08441. All data and materials have been made publicly available via Open Science Framework and can be accessed at https://osf.io/rg9ma/.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/9/1
Y1 - 2021/9/1
N2 - Objectives: A common finding in the mind-wandering literature is that older adults (OAs) tend to mind-wander less frequently than young adults (YAs). Here, we sought to determine whether this age-related difference in mind-wandering is attributable to age-related differences in motivation. Method: YAs and OAs completed an attention task during which they responded to thought probes that assessed rates of mind-wandering, and they provided self-reports of task-based motivation before and after completion of the attention task. Results: Age-related differences in mind-wandering are partially explained by differences in motivation, and motivating YAs via incentive diminishes mind-wandering differences across these groups. Discussion: We consider these results in the context of theories on age-related differences in mind wandering, with a specific focus on their relevance to the recently proposed motivational account of such age-related differences.
AB - Objectives: A common finding in the mind-wandering literature is that older adults (OAs) tend to mind-wander less frequently than young adults (YAs). Here, we sought to determine whether this age-related difference in mind-wandering is attributable to age-related differences in motivation. Method: YAs and OAs completed an attention task during which they responded to thought probes that assessed rates of mind-wandering, and they provided self-reports of task-based motivation before and after completion of the attention task. Results: Age-related differences in mind-wandering are partially explained by differences in motivation, and motivating YAs via incentive diminishes mind-wandering differences across these groups. Discussion: We consider these results in the context of theories on age-related differences in mind wandering, with a specific focus on their relevance to the recently proposed motivational account of such age-related differences.
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U2 - 10.1093/geronb/gbaa031
DO - 10.1093/geronb/gbaa031
M3 - Article
C2 - 32107558
AN - SCOPUS:85103357667
SN - 1079-5014
VL - 76
SP - 1264
EP - 1271
JO - Journals of Gerontology - Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
JF - Journals of Gerontology - Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
IS - 7
ER -