Abstract :
[en] Our minds are not always full of thoughts. Occasionally, people will report absence of any mental content, an experience termed mind-blanking (MB). So far, MB has been primarily quantified through experience-sampling paradigms. While experience-sampling has allowed researchers to study the behavioural and neurophysiological profile of MB, the practice of asking participants for thought categories, such as “an empty mind”, might undermine the richness and diversity of MB instances. In the present study, we adopted a self-reported, trait approach to MB. We developed a novel MB scale, the Liège Mind-Blanking Scale (L-MBS), with the aim to probe distinct types of MB experiences and relate them to different cognitive functions. A sample of 644 participants completed the L-MBS alongside a cohort of self-report questionnaires measuring trait mind-wandering, attention, memory, metacognition and arousal. The L-MBS showed adequate psychometric properties. Factor analysis validated the presence of 3 discrete factors: one related to the perceived experience of MB, one related to memory failures, and one related to blanking under pressure. Network analysis linked these factors to discrete cognitive domains. The experience of blanking correlated with metacognitive monitoring, while memory failures were associated with autobiographical memory difficulties. Overall, the L-MBS provides a quick, accessible and psychometrically validated measure of an individual’s beliefs about their blank experiences. At the same time, the presence of multiple MB factors suggests that MB is not necessarily a unitary phenomenon and most likely represents a clustering of different moments of no content.
