PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Self-generated thoughts have been widely investigated in recent years, while the terms \"mind-wandering\" and \"day-dreaming\" are usually used interchangeably. But are these terms equivalent? To test this, online study participants were presented with situations of a protagonist engaged in self-generated thoughts. The scenarios differed with regard to type of situation, the activity in which the protagonist was engaged in, and the properties of the self-generated thoughts. Two different groups evaluated the same situations; one group evaluated the extent to which the protagonist mind-wandered and another the extent to which the protagonist day-dreamt. Our key findings were that the situations were perceived differently with regard to mind-wandering and day-dreaming, depending on whether self-generated thoughts occurred when the protagonist was busy with another activity and the type of self-generated thoughts. In particular, while planning, worrying, and ruminating thoughts were perceived more as mind-wandering in situations involving another activity/task, the situations without another activity/task involving recalling past events and fantasizing thoughts were perceived more as day-dreaming. In the additional experiment, we investigated laypeople\'s reasons for classifying the situation as mind-wandering or day-dreaming. Our results altogether indicate that mind-wandering and day-dreaming might not be fully equivalent terms.
摘要：
近年来，自我生成的思想得到了广泛的研究，而术语“走神”和“白日梦”通常互换使用。但是这些术语是等同的吗？为了测试这个，在线研究参与者被呈现为主角从事自我生成思想的情况。情况的类型不同，主角从事的活动，以及自我生成思想的属性。两个不同的小组评估了相同的情况；一组评估了主角思想徘徊的程度，另一组评估了主角白天梦想的程度。我们的主要发现是，在走神和白日梦方面，人们对情况的看法有所不同，取决于主角忙于另一项活动时是否发生了自我生成的思想以及自我生成的思想的类型。特别是,在规划时，令人担忧,在涉及另一项活动/任务的情况下，沉思的想法被认为更像是在走神，没有涉及回忆过去事件和幻想思想的其他活动/任务的情况更多地被视为白日梦。在额外的实验中，我们调查了外行人将这种情况归类为走神或白日梦的原因。我们的结果完全表明，走神和白日梦可能不是完全等效的术语。
