Patterns of ongoing thought in the real world

This data was used to examine how thought patterns in the real world relate to the contexts in which they naturally emerge. We determined the prevalence of thought patterns (identified using Principal Component Analysis (PCA)) in a real-world experience sampling cohort. Participants completed multidimensional experience sampling (MDES) surveys eight times daily for five consecutive days. PCA was applied to these data to identify common "patterns of thought". Linear mixed modelling compared the prevalence of each thought pattern across different social, activity, location, and time contexts. We found that participants reported patterns of thought with episodic and social features when they were interacting with people in either a physical or virtual manner, replicating previous results. Furthermore, we discovered associations between four ongoing thought patterns captured by MDES and the everyday activities people were engaged in. Additionally, location predicted detailed task focus thought, especially when inside a workplace. Lastly, time of day was associated with both detailed task focus and episodic social cognition thought patterns. Overall, our study replicated the influence of socializing on patterns of ongoing thought and mapped patterns of thought across real-world contexts, such as social environment, activity, location, and time, as people went about their daily lives.

For full details of how this data was collected, see Mulholland et al. (2023), Consciousness and Cognition, Patterns of ongoing thought in the real world.