Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Changes in Mind Wandering in Older Adulthood

Age-related declines in mind wandering are well established. Theories of mind wandering have attempted to explain why this decline occurs, but no one theory firmly predicts such changes. One problem with these theoretical views, and the studies that have grown out of them, is their reliance on cross-sectional methods. However, they don’t account for within-person changes over time in mind wandering. It is well-documented that cross-sectional and longitudinal changes in some cognitive domains do not align, suggesting that some cognitive abilities might be preserved because of repeated testing. We present a novel analysis of longitudinal change in subjective and objective indicators of mind wandering during a sustained attention task. Cognitively normal adults (N = 271, age range 42-94) completed a sustained attention task with thought probes to measure mind wandering repeatedly over several years. Linear mixed effect models revealed baseline differences in subjective mind wandering reports among middle-aged and older adults. However, longitudinally, middle-aged participants showed a significant increase in subjective mind wandering whereas older participants showed no change. Changes in mind wandering could not be explained by attentional control ability or contemporaneous estimates of interest and perceived difficulty, but they were explained by baseline levels of conscientiousness. Objective measures of mind wandering did not show these same patterns and were largely only associated with participants perceived difficulty. Our results build on previous cross-sectional research and suggest that incorporating longitudinal analyses into theories of aging and mind wandering, and mind wandering more broadly, is important for refining these theories.