Does Mind Wandering Reflect Executive Function or Executive Failure? Comment on and

• Published in: Psychological bulletin 2010-03, Vol.136 (2), p.188-207
• Main Authors: McVay, Jennifer C., Kane, Michael J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0033-2909; 1939-1455
• DOI: 10.1037/a0018298

In this Comment, we contrast different conceptions of mind wandering that were presented in two recent theoretical reviews: Smallwood and Schooler (2006) and Watkins (2008) . We also introduce a new perspective on the role of executive control in mind wandering by integrating empirical evidence presented in Smallwood and Schooler (2006) with two theoretical frameworks: Watkins’s (2008) elaborated control theory and Klinger’s (1971 ; 2009 ) current concerns theory. In contrast to the Smallwood-Schooler claim that mind-wandering recruits executive resources, we argue that mind wandering represents a failure of executive control and that it is dually determined by the presence of automatically generated thoughts in response to environmental and mental cues and the ability of the executive-control system to deal with this interference. We present empirical support for this view from experimental, neuroimaging, and individual-differences research.