Quantifying streams of thought during cognitive task performance using sequence analysis

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

Streams of thought vary in content from one moment to the next, and these temporal patterns have been argued to be critical to understanding the wandering mind. But few analytic methods have been proposed that can account for both the content and temporal ordering of categorical experience sampling thought probes over time. In the present study, I apply sequence analytic methods to quantify the dynamics of thought from time series sequences of categorical experience sampling thought probes delivered across five different cognitive tasks in the same individuals (N = 545). Analyses revealed some patterns of consistency in streams of thought within individuals, but also demonstrated considerable variability within and between task sessions. Hierarchical clustering of sequence dissimilarities further revealed common typologies of mind wandering across individuals. These findings demonstrate the application of sequence analytic methods for quantifying the dynamics of thought over the course of task performance and show that contextual task constraints are associated with how streams of thought unfold over time. More broadly, sequence analysis provides a valuable framework for investigation of time ordered cognitive and behavioral processes across psychological domains.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2417-2437
Number of pages21
JournalBehavior Research Methods
Volume52
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.

Keywords

  • Dynamics
  • Markov model
  • Mind wandering
  • Multivariate distance matrix regression
  • Sequence analysis
  • Task-unrelated thought

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Psychology (miscellaneous)
  • General Psychology

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