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Face the future! How the self and time shape mind-wandering.

Giovanni Cantarella¹, Alberto Massimiliano Umiltà², Debora Stendardi¹

¹Department of Psychology 'Renzo Canestrari', University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy; Center for Studies and Research of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Bologna, Cesena, Italy.

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|November 10, 2025

Summary

Activating self-reflection and future thinking influences mind-wandering. Focusing on one's future self increases unaware mind-wandering with self-related thoughts, while considering an older face boosts aware mind-wandering.

Keywords:

Default mode network Experience sampling Future-oriented thought Internal thoughts Meta-awareness Mind-wandering Prospective thinking Self Self-schema Spontaneous cognition Temporal focus Time

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Published on: May 10, 2017

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience

Background:

Adaptive mind-wandering often involves future-oriented thinking.
Self-reflection is thought to promote future-oriented cognition.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how activating the Self schema versus another person's schema affects mind-wandering.
To examine if activating future time representation versus present time representation influences mind-wandering frequency and content.
To differentiate the effects of Self and Time schemas on aware (self-caught) and unaware (probe-caught) mind-wandering.

Main Methods:

Four groups of healthy young adults were exposed to conditions manipulating Self/Other and Present/Future time schemas using facial stimuli.
Participants viewed either their own or a famous person's current or aged face.
Mind-wandering was assessed during a Choice Reaction Time task using both self-caught and probe-caught methods.

Main Results:

Viewing an older face correlated with increased aware mind-wandering compared to viewing a younger face.
Viewing one's own face was linked to increased unaware mind-wandering, characterized by self-related and future-oriented thoughts, compared to viewing another person's face.
Distinct effects of Self and Time schemas were observed on aware versus unaware mind-wandering.

Conclusions:

Both Self and Time schemas significantly influence the frequency and content of off-task thought.
The activation of Self and Time schemas has dissociable impacts on aware and unaware forms of mind-wandering.
Future-oriented self-reflection plays a role in modulating different types of mind-wandering.