Age-dependent attentional style and arousal regulate reportability of spontaneous mental states

The reportability of spontaneous thoughts relies significantly on attention and arousal. As these cognitive faculties change with age, we aimed at testing how spontaneous mental state reportability is influenced accordingly. Using experience sampling, 20 senior (65-75yrs) and 20 young participants (20-30yrs) were prompted to report mind-wandering (MW), mind-blanking (MB), or sensory-related (S) mental states at random times. Attention was assessed with the Attentional Style Questionnaire, and arousal with continuous monitoring of pupil diameter. First, we found more MW occurrences than MB or S across all participants. For young responders, we replicated that MW was more prevalent in easily distracted participants. MW was also linked to higher arousal (pupil dilation) and MB was linked to lower arousal (pupil constriction) independently of attentional style. In seniors though, MW was more prevalent in participants with higher focused style. As participants were more easily distracted, MW was associated with lower arousal and MB with higher arousal. We postulate that these effects in seniors may result from intentional MW, during which they allocate attentional resources inwards, as opposed to younger participants who get more easily distracted by intrusive thoughts leading to unintentional MW. Together, our results highlight opposite mechanisms by which attentional style regulates the reportability of spontaneous mental states across age. They also point towards the role of attentional style in mediating the impact of arousal on spontaneous thinking in the senior population.