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ABSTRACT
This research investigated the effect of mood on self-reported effort in trying to focus back from mind wandering to ongoing things. We conducted three studies (one correlational and two experimental studies). Study 1 served as a correlational demonstration (questionnaires) of the negative relations between focus back effort and negative mood and between mind wandering and focus back effort at the trait level. Furthermore, a self-reported measure of focus back effort was developed to examine the effect of mood inductions on the ratings of focus back effort in the laboratory (Study 2) and daily life (Study 3). The findings of Studies 2 and 3 revealed that both in the laboratory and in daily life, participants in a negative mood reported lower levels of focus back effort rating than those in a positive mood. Thus, moods modulated mind wandering and an individual’s effort in trying to focus back to some extent. Future work should account for the role of moods in mind wandering or focus back episodes.
Acknowledgements
The work was supported by the Open Research Fund of the State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning (grant number CNLZD1804), the General Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 31271083), and the Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 61632014).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Open practices statement
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available because we may use these data in other unpublished studies but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. These experiments were not preregistered.