A LABORATORY METHOD FOR INVESTIGATING INFLUENCES ON SWITCHING ATTENTION TO TASK-UNRELATED IMAGERY AND THOUGHT

Thought-intrusions, automatic inferences, and other unintended thought are beginning to play an important role in the study of psychiatric d isease as well as normal thought processes. We examine one method for the study of task-unrelated imagery and thought (TUIT). TUIT likelihoo d was shown to be reliably measured over a wide range of vigilance tas ks, to have high short-term test-retest reliability, and to be sensiti ve to information processing demands. Likelihood of TUITs was shown to be different as a function of aging, hyperactivity, time of the day, and level of depression. Thus, we now can reliably measure the influen ce of endogenous and exogenous influences on TUITs. In addition, TUIT measurement was proposed as minimally interfering and natural second t ask for determining resource utilizing in a primary task. Finally, thi s method was offered as a reliable approach to quantification of such mental states as obsessions and drug craving and addiction. (C) 1995 A cademic Press, Inc.