These Scientists Have Some Advice on Stopping Unwanted Thoughts From Intruding

A new study outlines an approach that any of us could use in order to limit the number of thoughts that drop into our minds without an invite.

There are differences between proactive and reactive control. Proactive control is when we try and stop the thought from coming in, while reactive control is when we try and suppress it.

The classic white bear problem is related to this one. You will end up thinking about the polar bear if someone tells you not to think of it.

If you try and distract yourself from thinking about the polar bear, you'll be able to. Our brains may be able to stop a thought from reaching our conscious mind before we need to take control.

It's not clear how our brains engage in proactive control. The process was simplified by focusing on word associations.

The data shows that it is possible to weaken connections to certain thoughts if we put our mind to it.

The researchers said that this type of control can be problematic. According to our findings, thoughts are self-reinforcing: thinking increases its memory strength and the likelihood that it will recur.

It has the potential to become even stronger when we reject an association. If people want to make sure that this thought doesn't come to mind too much, they can partially pre-empt this process.

80 volunteers were asked to come up with new associations to 60 common words as they were shown on a screen. Forty of the volunteers' data was used in the study. The words were presented five times.

The participants were told before the event that they wouldn't be paid a reward if they repeated any associations.

An initial association, such as a table joined with a chair, becomes an unwanted thought in the first group. Even if chair was their go-to thought, the participant had to input a new association with 'table'.

The researchers found that the volunteers who were trying to avoid repetition were mostly thinking of previously used words and rejecting them.

(Fradkin and Eldar, PLOS Computational Biology, 2022)

The figure shows pure reactive, pure proactive thought control, and three mechanisms of proactive control. In the rightmost trial, you can see how one or two of the previous associations are avoided in favor of a new association. Associative strength is determined by line thickness. Solid lines represent the policy while dashed lines represent associations. There are reported associations that are highlighted. The unique characteristics of each solution are highlighted in yellow, together with green circles and red circles, showing only the rightmost trials, leading to an attempt to think of an alternative association.

The difference between the two groups indicated that the people in the group were having some success at not repeating the same words. The participants did not get stuck in a loop of repeating the same words.

"Although people can't avoid unwanted thoughts, they can make sure that they don't increase the likelihood of it coming to mind again," says Fradkin.

The experiment can be seen as repeated thoughts. It's possible that we can train ourselves to stop our thoughts from getting stronger and more intractable every time we relive the pain of a relationship break up.

The data only suggests that it is possible, to a limited extent, when we intentionally switch from reactive to proactive thought control.

While the researchers stuck to neutral word associations here, rather than unwanted thoughts that are distressing or linked to any kind of mental health issue, that's the sort of direction that follow up research could go in.

Fradkin says that future studies should determine if the findings generalize to negative and personally relevant unwanted thoughts.

The research was published in a journal.