Goal-Directed, Spontaneous, and Stimulus-Independent Thoughts and Mindwandering in a Competitive Context

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Tibor Latinjak

The aim of this study was to analyze the functions of goal-directed thoughts and the content of spontaneous and stimulus-independent thoughts and mindwandering in a competitive setting and to explore links between different types of thoughts. Therefore, 17 young sport science students competed in a card-sorting task, while their recorded thoughts were collected between trials. Afterwards, the participants classified their own transcripts into different types of thoughts. The results indicated that goal-directed thinking serves a variety of functions, that spontaneous thought content might reflect a series of psychological states and processes relevant for performance, and that the content of mindwandering was idiosyncratic. Moreover, goal-directed thinking increased during competition, whereas mindwandering diminished. Lastly, mindwandering was rarely connected to other types of thinking, whereas the most recurrent connection between thoughts was found between goal-directed and spontaneous thinking.

1966 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 779-782 ◽  
Author(s):  
William I. Gardner

Institutionalized mentally retarded adolescents and young adults ( N = 80) performed on a card-sorting task immediately preceding and following a series of neutral, success, total failure or partial failure experiences. As predicted, the success group demonstrated an increment in performance, the total failure group showed no change in performance, and the partial failure group showed a decrement in performance.


2006 ◽  
Vol 410 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah J. Bayless ◽  
William C. Gaetz ◽  
Douglas O. Cheyne ◽  
Margot J. Taylor

1976 ◽  
Vol 129 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. R. Hemsley

SummaryThis study compared matched groups of patients with acute schizophrenia and with depression on three tests used in the assessment of schizophrenic thinking disorder. Most measures derived from these tests significantly differentiated the groups; however, within the schizophrenic group there were no significant correlations between scores on the three tests. Further data were available from a choice reaction-time card-sorting task, from which estimates of distractability, stimulus decision time, response decision time, and movement time, were obtained. Only one significant relation was found between these measures and scores on the clinical tests. The possible confounding effects of intelligence and responsiveness are discussed. It is argued that more direct measures of the latter are preferable to interpreting tests of thinking disorder in terms of information processing deficits.


2005 ◽  
Vol 116 (2) ◽  
pp. 376-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Bijl ◽  
Eveline A. de Bruin ◽  
Koen B.E. Böcker ◽  
J. Leon Kenemans ◽  
Marinus N. Verbaten

1968 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 785-793 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph G. Phelan

For 90 college students, matched for SAT scores, there was differentiation of ability to identify correctly complex conjunctive concepts in a card-sorting task, as demonstrated by ability to learn the concepts to an errorless trial and to apply the newly formed concepts to other materials. Some Ss were able to learn the concepts to an errorless trial and to apply each concept to new sorts but were then unable to verbalize correctly those rules they had just employed. The same Ss who had previously learned an equivalent principle for sorting in one situation, then having tried unsuccessfully to verbalize the concept which they had just employed, were unable to apply the same principle in a new, equivalent situation.


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