The Effect Of Negative Emotion Priming On Mind Wandering

Mind wandering is a phenomenon in which attention is transferred from the current task or external events to internal spontaneous thoughts and feelings.Negative emotions refer to the emotions that are not conducive to the completion of work or continued thinking due to external or internal factors.It has been proved that negative emotions can affect the person’s the process of attention,but it is a problem worthy to be discussed that if negative emotions will affect mind wandering,and how to affect the mind wandering.a questionnaire and two experimental studies,combined with physiograph,were conducted to investigate the effect of negative emotions on mind-wandering.In the first study,270 college students were measured by Mind Wandering Frequency Questionnaire and Positive and Negative Affect Schedule.The results showed that the frequency of mind wandering was positively correlated with negative emotions,but not significantly correlated with positive emotions.The results of regression analysis showed that negative emotion was an important factor affecting mind-wandering.In study 2,we measured mind-wandering by the paradigm of Sustained Attention to Response Tasks and physiograph.the results found that induced emotions can increase respiratory frequency and skin temperature,subjects when Mind Wandering,characterized by shorter reaction time,greater reaction time variation and increased heart rate and lower temperature of the skin.However,negative emotions did not effectively increase the frequency of mind-wandering and the type of emotion had no effect on individual physiologyIn the third study,emotional faces were used to continuously priming emotions during the experiment task.The results showed that the face pictures successfully primed the emotions of the participants.Negative emotion priming effectively increases the frequency of mind-wandering,which supports the interactive theory of personality system.Mind wandering frequency increased with the task time added.Mind-wandering is related to a higher level of physiological arousal.When mindwandering,individuals show such characteristics as smaller reaction time,increased variation in reaction time,increased heart rate and decreased respiratory rate.In general,the negative emotions are related to mind wandering.Participants when mind wandering,show the reaction time is shorter,reaction time variability and heart rate increased and respiratory frequency dropped.The individual physiological activation is not affected by emotion type,negative emotions can increase frequency of mind wandering,negative emotions positively related to mind wandering get a strong support of physiological changes.