When the mind wanders: Distinguishing stimulus-dependent from stimulus-independent thoughts during incidental encoding in young and older adults.

摘要: In recent years, several studies have indicated that healthy older adults exhibit a reduction in mind-wandering compared with young adults. However, relatively little research has examined the extent to which ongoing thoughts and are dependent on environmental stimuli. current study, we assessed age-related differences frequency of stimulus-dependent (SDTs) stimulus-independent (SITs) during slow-paced incidental encoding task. Based previous suggesting rely external information greater than adults, hypothesized may be more We found although reported overall fewer they exhibited proportion SITs an increase SDTs. both age groups, SDTs were frequently about past SITs, while future. Finally, SDTs, but not at was positively correlated how often remembering retrieval, SDT performance memory task Our results provide evidence stimuli these impact recognition tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record