Why are we not flooded by involuntary thoughts about the past and future? Testing the cognitive inhibition dependency hypothesis

Barzykowski, Krystian; Radel, Rémi; Niedźwieńska, Agnieszka; Kvavilashvili, Lia · 2018 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1007/s00426-018-1120-6

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Summary

This study investigates the "cognitive inhibition dependency hypothesis," which posits that cognitive inhibition prevents individuals from being constantly flooded by involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) and episodic involuntary future thoughts (IFTs). While IAMs have been extensively studied, IFTs are a newer area of research, yet both occur frequently in daily life triggered by incidental cues. The authors sought to determine if depleting inhibitory control resources would increase the frequency of these involuntary thoughts, thereby testing whether inhibition acts as a gatekeeper for spontaneous mental time travel. The researchers employed a between-subjects experimental design with 114 participants divided into three groups: depleted inhibition, intact inhibition, and control. To manipulate inhibitory resources, participants in the experimental conditions performed a 60-minute Stroop task. The depleted inhibition group completed a high-conflict version with 75% incongruent trials, while the intact inhibition group performed a low-conflict version with 100% congruent trials. The control group did not perform the Stroop task. Following this manipulation, all participants completed a laboratory vigilance task involving the detection of vertical lines amidst horizontal ones, interspersed with verbal phrases. Using a probe-caught method, participants reported their thoughts at random intervals, which were later classified as IAMs, IFTs, or other types. Manipulation checks included the Simon task to assess inhibitory performance and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) to monitor mood and fatigue. Contrary to the predictions of the cognitive inhibition dependency hypothesis, the results showed no significant differences in the frequency of reported IFTs or IAMs across the three conditions. Although manipulation checks confirmed that the depleted inhibition group had reduced inhibitory resources and reported higher levels of fatigue compared to the control group, these factors did not correlate with an increase in involuntary past or future thoughts. The study also found that neither physical nor mental fatigue significantly affected the frequency of these thoughts. These findings challenge the assumption that cognitive inhibition is the primary mechanism regulating the occurrence of involuntary episodic thoughts. The results suggest that the spontaneous retrieval of IAMs and IFTs may not depend on the availability of inhibitory control resources, at least in the context of low-demand vigilance tasks. This implies that other mechanisms, such as spreading activation or goal-relevance, may play a more critical role in determining when involuntary mental time travel occurs, warranting further investigation into the cognitive processes underlying spontaneous thought.

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