Fig. 4: Lockdown entails changes in ongoing random thoughts using multidimensional experience sampling.
a,b, In separate time points before and during the first lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, participants were queried by experience sampling at various moments, five random times per day for a whole week118. The participants were prompted at random times in their everyday lives to obtain multiple reports describing features of their ongoing thoughts and the context in which they occurred (for example, social environment, activity and location). The aim was to illuminate how specific features of the stay-at-home order impacted people’s thinking in daily life. Multidimensional experience sampling assessed people’s thoughts across 22 assessment dimensions, including aspects of social thinking and future-directed problem-solving. Panel a shows a comparison of the overall responses to the experience-sampling queries. During the lockdown, both groups of 59 younger (18–35 years old) and 23 older adults (55+ years old) reported feeling more alone. Panel b shows where the participants were when being queried during the lockdown (most were at home). The collective findings show that the lockdown led to significant changes in ongoing thought patterns in daily life. These changes were associated with changes to daily routines that occurred during lockdown. Figure reproduced with permission from ref. 118.
