The study examined how the feeling of self-movement or vection influenced mental time travel (MTT), the ability to think about the past or future. 26 students watched a star screen that moved in a way to induce either backward or forward vection. Students reporting mind wandering were asked about the direction and content of their thoughts. As hypothesized, forward vection led to more future-oriented thoughts while backward vection resulted in past-focused thoughts, supporting the idea that MTT is connected to sensory-motor processing in the brain. The results provided evidence that physical motion sensations can influence how we perceive and think about past and future events.

1. Running Head: MENTAL TIME TRAVEL 1
Mental Time Travel
Joseph Arron Knox
Tarleton State University

2. MENTAL TIME TRAVEL 2
Abstract
This article was found while searching the Tarleton Library databases for texts
related to “Extrasensory Perception” (ESP) in accord to “Psychology.” “The Meandering
Mind: Vection and Mental Time Travel” may not be directly correlated with ESP
pertaining to telepathy, paranormal occurrences, or psychokinesis. However, it does
relate to; sense of “self-movement” or “Vection”, possibly to actual physical movement
through “space/time”, and to “Mental Time Travel” (MTT) or the “(retrospection and
prospection)” thinking of future or past based simulations. An experiment was conducted
to analyze how the manipulation of the temporal lobe by vection (either forward or
backward) would influence the thought processes of forward thinking (towards the
future) or backward thinking (about the past). This text is a brief summary of the theories,
processes, and results that were involved. (Miles, Karpinska, Lumsden, & Macrae, 2010)
Keywords: vection, MTT, ESP, forward, backward, space/time

3. MENTAL TIME TRAVEL 3
Mental Time Travel
The study implemented by the School of Psychology at the University of
Aberdeen was directed in order to research the connection between “mind wandering” or
“daydreaming” in the temporal lobe, with a “grounding in perception-action” process that
corresponds with “spatial information” and the feeling of “self-movement” or “vection”
(Miles et al., 2010). The experiment consisted of a sample of 26 undergraduates from the
same university; they were asked to individually perform a “mundane task” of watching a
star screen, as this was thought to induce “mind wandering” (Miles et al., 2010). The star
screen was programed to create the feeling of vection in the subjects during this “day
dream” state, to encourage either (forward thinking) “prospective” simulations or
(backward thinking) “retrospective” simulations of thought (Miles et al., 2010). After
completing the six minutes of stargazing, the subjects were “debriefed” on if they were
“day dreaming”, for how long, and whether it was future or past based forms of thinking
in MTT or Mind Time Travel (Miles et al., 2010). The hypothesis going into the
procedure was that, “backward vection was expected to trigger participants to dwell on
the past, forward vection was expected to precipitate predominantly future-oriented
thoughts” (Miles et al., 2010).
Variables
The only independent variable in the testing was whether the star screens were
programed to move “centripetally” (towards) or “centrifugally” (away) from the center of
the animation “corresponding to the experience of backward and forward vection,
respectively” (Miles et al., 2010). This means, if the stars were moving to the center the

4. MENTAL TIME TRAVEL 4
subject should feel backward vection and if the stars were moving away from the center
the subject would experience forward vection. A “manipulation check” was conducted
with 19 subjects to assure that this theory of centripetal/centrifugal motion of the star
screen was in fact correlated to vection, which was proven (Miles et al., 2010).
The dependent variable in this case was whether the subject experienced MTT
associated with the past or with the future based upon which version of the independent
version they were subjected to.
Experimentation
The subjects were asked to monitor the star screen and click a button if they saw
the “target”, an “O” pop-up in the center of the screen, but if they saw a “distractor”, an
“X”, not to do anything (Miles et al., 2010). The “targets” only appeared six times during
the six-minute test for each subject, making the procedure “relatively boring” (Miles et
al., 2010). “Immediately” after the tests, the subjects are asked if they had any “task-
unrelated” thoughts during the experiment (Miles et al., 2010). The subjects that did have
“mind wondering” or experienced MTT were asked to rate their cognitions on three
linear horizontal scales; “Past Events-Future Events” (to determine where more thinking
time was spent), “Negative-Positive” (to convey the “valence” of the MTT), and “Off-
Task – On-Task” (to determine how much time was spent in MTT); the ends of the scales
are extremes and towards the middle are more balanced (Miles et al., 2010). Only one
subject stated that they did not think “Off-Task” or experience MTT, and “therefore
asked no further questions” (Miles et al., 2010).
Findings
There was not much proven change or difference in the effect that the

5. MENTAL TIME TRAVEL 5
independent variable had on the valence of the MTT or the amount time spent in “Off or
On-Task” thinking for any of the subjects (Miles et al., 2010). As expected by Miles et
al., (2010) subjects who experienced forward vection “reported a significantly higher
proportion of future-related” MTT than the subjects who experienced backward vection
and vice-versa. During forward vection “59.7% of subjects experienced future thoughts”
with the remainder being “past thoughts”; and during backward vection “63.4% of
subjects experienced past thoughts” with the remainder being “future thoughts” (Miles et
al., 2010).
Conclusion
The theory that is MTT is “grounded” in the “sensory-motor processing” portion
of our brain is supported by the results from the study. Motion was proven to have some
effect on how we think and perceive both behind us (in the past) and in front of us (in the
future). There are other experiments conducted around physical body motion and
“swaying” that suggests that the cells associated with MTT may not be the only ones that
can move through “space/time”. To simplify these complexities in the future, further
research should be orchestrated and serious consideration should be paid to the
possibilities of Mind Time Travel. (Miles, Karpinska, Lumsden, & Macrae, 2010)

6. MENTAL TIME TRAVEL 6
References
Miles, L.K., Karpinska, K., Lumsden, J., & Macrae, C.N. (2010). The meandering
mind: vection and mental time travel. PLoS ONE, 5(5), 1-6. Doi: 10.1371/
journal.pone.0010825.
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