Avoiding and Recovering from Mind Wandering Episodes
Abstract
Mind wandering refers to a mental state in which off-task thoughts prevent a person from focusing on relevant information. Proneness to mind wandering is associated with diminished executive function, which is behaviorally apparent in ways such as lower reading comprehension and poor attention control. This study will examine and train the cognitive mechanisms that relate mind wandering tendencies to higher cognitive abilities (e.g., working memory, comprehension, and reasoning). The first experiment will examine the types of attention (e.g., attention control, sustained attention, attentional disengagement) that explain the correlation between mind wandering and cognitive abilities. The second experiment will be a month-long study in which participants will train on tasks designed to strengthen the aspects of attention that are revealed by the first study to be critical to this correlation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 21, 2018
- Source ID
- N000141612455
Entities
People
- Zachary Shipstead
Organizations
- Arizona State University
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy