In a series of studies using laboratory procedures and retrospective reports it has been established that with increasing age adults less frequently have unbidden task-unrelated image and thought intrusions (TUITs). TUITs--also referred to as daydreams--have been linked to the "current concerns" and "unfinished business" of the individual, and old adults have been shown to express fewer current concerns than young adults. It has also been hypothesized that selective loss of neurons in old age might interfere with thought production, resulting in fewer unbidden thoughts and spontaneous shifts of attention to them. In this article we examine the extent to which intraindividual change in the frequency of TUITs over 6 to 8 years is consistent with the decrease expected from the prior cross-sectional studies. In particular, we examine the frequency of daydreams based upon retrospective self-reports using the Daydreaming Frequency scale of the Imaginal Processes Inventory. The longitudinal sample consisted of 93 women and 169 men. Significant and equivalent decreases in Daydreaming Frequency scale values occurred at all ages. Longitudinal decreases were consistent with cross-sectional age differences. Thus, spontaneous shifts of attention to the contents of consciousness were seen to decrease over a 6 to 8 year interval within individuals--a result consistent with a within-individual change in conditions leading to spontaneous shifts.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Sustained attention and aging: overcoming the decrement?

A literature review found equivocal evidence of a performance decline at senescence on sustained attention (vigilance) tasks. The strongest evidence for such age effects was from Parasuraman and Giambra (PG; 1991). It was hypothesized that reduced perceptual and information-processing abilities of older adults (i.e., non-sustained attentional components of the task) were responsible for the age effects reported by PG and that such outcomes could be eliminated or reduced by minimizing the influence of those components. In Tasks 1 (n = 457) and 2 (n = 427), which used PG's procedure and stimulus conditions, age effects on detection accuracy and on the detection time decrement were not found. False alarms were significantly greater in the old group than in the young group. In Task 3 (n = 417), which minimized non-sustained attention components, some marginal evidence of age effects emerged. Potential explanations of these outcomes, such as an extremely small age effect, sampling bias, power differences, and undetected visual difficulties are considered, and further manipulations and controls are proposed.

Adolescent↗

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Sex differences in daydreaming and related mental activity from the late teens to the early nineties.

Using the Imaginal Processes Inventory, aspects of daydreaming and associated mental activity were examined for sex differences in 1200 well educated middle and upper-middle class whites aged seventeen to ninety-two ninety-two years. Females reported higher levels of daydreaming and nightdreaming frequency and emotional reactions to daydreaming as well as more daydreams of a problem solving nature. Females also reported lower levels of daydreams of a sexual, bizarre-improbable, heroic and achievement-oriented nature. Most sex differences persisted over the life span with the difference for sexual daydreams increasing with increasing age level. Except for problem-solving daydreams, all daydreaming contents investigated decreased with increases in age. Across the lifespan problem-solving daydreams were the most likely for both sexes except for seventeen to twenty-nine year old males where such daydreams were second most likely; from age seventeen to twenty-nine sexual daydreams were most likely for males. After age forty, achievement oriented daydreams were relatively more important for females than for males. Females across the lifespan also reported more interpersonal curiosity than males while males exhibited more curiosity about things. Unexpectedly, male curiosity about things was equally as strong as their curiosity about people.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Adult male daydreaming across the life span: a replication, further analyses, and tentative norms based upon retrospective reports.

Using the Imaginal Processes Inventory, aspects of daydreaming and related mental activity were examined in a replication sample of males aged seventeen to ninety-one years. The characteristics of daydreaming obtained in an original sample were obtained in the replication sample thus supporting the outcomes reported earlier. Combining the original and replication sample allowed for some finer grained analyses and provided some tentative norms for the populations sampled. Some of the more salient outcomes were that with old age daydreaming does not increase or primarily focus on the past. Furthermore, at any age daydreaming does not concentrate on the weird, outlandish, and improbable. Factor analysis revealed a "Neurotic-Anxious Absorption in Daydreaming" factor inversely related to age. "Obsessional-Emotional Daydreaming," "Personal Acceptance-Utilization of Daydreaming," and "Imaginal-Emotional Intensity of Daydreaming" factors were also obtained and were unrelated to age.

Adolescent↗