Abstract
Objectives: Meta-awareness has been implicated in monitoring of and self-regulatory control over attentional processes implicated in internally directed cognition and mental health. Yet, research has focused on external sensory-perceptual attention. We therefore sought to quantify meta-awareness of difficulty disengaging internal attention from one’s own negative thoughts, and thereby examine its role in internal attentional (dys)control. Methods: In an unselected sample of 42 adult participants (M(SD)age = 24.46 (6.11) years old, rangeage 18–39; 74% female), we quantified trial-level difficulty disengaging internal attention from own-voice (simulated) thought stimuli as well as trial-level meta-awareness by integrating self-caught probes and signal detection within a digit categorization task. Results: We found, first, evidence for, and individual differences in, meta-awareness of internal attentional dyscontrol. Second, the greater the difficulty disengaging internal attention from a negative thought, the greater the likelihood for momentary meta-awareness. Finally, we found that meta-awareness of difficulty disengaging internal attention from a negative simulated thought (trial n) predicts reduced difficulty disengaging attention from one’s next negative thought (trial n + 1). Conclusions: Meta-awareness may serve a monitoring-for-control function with respect to internal attention, with potential translational implications for experimental cognitive training therapeutics.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Mindfulness |
DOIs | |
State | Accepted/In press - 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
Keywords
- Cognitive control
- Internal attention
- Meta-Awareness
- Mindfulness
- Repetitive negative thinking
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology
- Health(social science)
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Applied Psychology