Spontaneous thought and memory consolidation: An investigation into mindwandering evoked by preferred music and its influence on short‑term memory consolidation

Abstract

Research has shown that rest is beneficial for memory consolidation. However, periods of rest are also prone to evoke mind wandering (MW) episodes, which have been observed to be an obstacle to learning. As such, an apparent paradox arises from these observations: individuals benefit from rest to consolidate memories, but those periods of rest are likely to elicit MW episodes, which are seen as impeding consolidation. Using the caught probe paradigm, we measured the effect of MW frequency over performance in two dot pattern classification tasks after two types of periods of rest: rest in silence and rest with preferred music. We found that MW and rest conditions interact to predict accuracy in a Novel or Old categorisation task, but not in a Category Classification task. Although rest with music was predictive of better post-rest task performance in the Novel or Old task, MW frequency was related with higher accuracy only when participants rested in silence. What is more, we found that participants’ attitudes towards music reliably moderated the effect of MW over the Novel or Old task accuracy. Together, these results show that MW during rest is potentially beneficial for short-term memory consolidation and does not necessarily interfere with it.

Juan F. Ariza

Research Assistant 2023-2024 / Teaching supervision 2023-2024 / BA Music Education | Research supervision 2018-2019 (Distinction)

Research assistant at EvoCo: Human Behaviour and Evolution Lab since 2023, and BA research project student between 2018 and 2019 (Distinction).

Juan David Leongómez

Associate Professor

My research interests include mate choice and human vocal communication, with an aspiration towards understanding musicality. I am also interested in bioacoustics and psychoacoustics, as well as statistics and  programming.