Absorbed in Thought: The Effect of Mind Wandering on the Processing of Relevant and Irrelevant Events

This study used event-related potentials to explore whether mind wandering (task-unrelated thought, or TUT) emerges through general problems in distraction, deficits of task-relevant processing (the executive-function view), or a general reduction in attention to external events regardless of their...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological science 2011-05, Vol.22 (5), p.596-601
Main Authors: Barron, Evelyn, Riby, Leigh M., Greer, Joanna, Smallwood, Jonathan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Attention
Behavioral neuroscience
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive neuroscience
Cognitive psychology
Concept of mind
Data processing
Developmental psychology
Distraction
Electrodes
Event-related potentials
Evoked Potentials
Female
Humans
Hypotheses
Information relevance
Male
Memory
Mental Processes
Mind
Personality traits
Photic Stimulation - methods
Research Report
Scalp
Sensory perception
Stimulus
Task performance
Task Performance and Analysis
Thinking
Visual task performance
Wandering
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Summary:This study used event-related potentials to explore whether mind wandering (task-unrelated thought, or TUT) emerges through general problems in distraction, deficits of task-relevant processing (the executive-function view), or a general reduction in attention to external events regardless of their relevance (the decoupling hypothesis). Twenty-five participants performed a visual oddball task, in which they were required to differentiate between a rare target stimulus (to measure task-relevant processes), a rare novel stimulus (to measure distractor processing), and a frequent nontarget stimulus. TUT was measured immediately following task performance using a validated retrospective measure. High levels of TUT were associated with a reduction in cortical processing of task-relevant events and distractor stimuli. These data contradict the suggestion that mind wandering is associated with distraction problems or specific deficits in task-relevant processes. Instead, the data are consistent with the decoupling hypothesis: that TUT dampens the processing of sensory information irrespective of that information's task relevance.
ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1177/0956797611404083