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

Adaptive mind-wandering is mostly future-oriented, and previous evidence suggests that self-reflection promotes future-oriented thought. This study investigates whether the activation of the Self (vs another person's) schema and of a representation of the future (vs present) time is followed by changes in the frequency and content of aware (self-caught) and unaware (probe-caught) mind-wandering. Four groups of healthy young adults viewed their current face (Present Self condition; N = 27) or aged face (Future Self condition; N = 28), or the current (Present Other condition; N = 29) or aged face of a famous person (Future Other condition; N = 27) and attributed personality traits to the individual they viewed. Participants then engaged in a Choice Reaction Time task with concomitant assessment of self-caught and probe-caught mind-wandering. We found that viewing an older compared to a younger face was associated with higher rates of aware mind-wandering, while viewing one's own compared to someone else's face was associated with higher rates of unaware mind-wandering, involving self-related and future-oriented thoughts. These findings show that both Self and Time schemata are associated with the frequency and content of off-task thought, with dissociable effects on aware and unaware forms of mind-wandering.