Individual differences in autobiographical memory predict the tendency to engage in spontaneous thoughts

ABSTRACT

Individual differences in autobiographical memory have become a research area of interest, but little is known about its associations with other individual differences dimensions, such as the tendency to engage in spontaneous cognition. We report two studies examining individual differences in autobiographical memory, as measured by the Autobiographical Recollection Test (ART), in relation to eight trait-like measures of spontaneous thought and, in Study 2, also a measure of fantasy proneness. In Study 1, the ART correlated positively and systematically with six out of eight measures of spontaneous thought, even when controlling for age, gender, and trait positive and negative affect. The two exceptions concerned spontaneous thoughts specifically related to attentional deficits. Study 2 replicated these findings and extended them to a measure of fantasy proneness. The findings demonstrate that people who generally consider their autobiographical memories to be vivid, detailed, relevant, and coherent, report a higher tendency to engage in various forms of spontaneous cognition, including positive constructive daydreaming, spontaneous mind wandering, involuntary mental time travel, and vivid and immersive fantasy. We discuss these findings in terms of the role autobiographical memory plays in spontaneous thoughts.

KEYWORDS:

• Autobiographical memory
• spontaneous thought
• mind wandering
• affectivity
• individual differences
• autobiographical recollection test

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, AL, upon reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We examined the assumptions of multiple linear regression (See Supplemental Material page 2, Figure S1 and Figure S2)

2 Note that the ART was a significant predictor at p<.001 in six out of eight hierarchical regressions (see Table 2), demonstrating that it is a robust predictor even when controlling for multiple testing by dividing p = .05 by 8 (p = .006).

3 We examined the assumptions of multiple linear regression (see Supplemental Material page 6, Figure S3 and Figure S4)

4 Note that, as in Study 1, the ART was a significant predictor at p<.001 in the seven hierarchical regressions (see Table 4), demonstrating that it is a robust predictor even when controlling for multiple testing by dividing p = .05 by 7 (p = .007).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Independent Research Fund Denmark [9037-00015B]