ArticleScientific reports2022
Executive failure hypothesis explains the trait-level association between motivation and mind wandering.
Article in Scientific reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The Relative Accuracy of Different Methods for Measuring Mind Wandering Subtypes: A Systematic Review.Brain and behavior · 2025Pooled it
- Lapses of attention.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2026Review
- Value-driven attentional capture prevents commission errors in real time.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2026Article
- Mind Wandering during Implicit Learning Is Associated with Increased Periodic EEG Activity and Improved Extraction of Hidden Probabilistic Patterns.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
1 author.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Mind wandering (MW) is commonly observable in daily life. Early studies established an association between motivation and MW at the trait level using a questionnaire survey. Considering that the mechanism of state-level association between them is known, this study was conducted to replicate the trait-level association and determine its possible mechanisms. Two independent samples were analysed using several questionnaires, which included motivation and MW. General one- and multi-dimensional scales were administered for both variables. Besides the successful replication of the significant association between motivation and MW at the trait level, we found that people with low levels of executive function experience high rates of spontaneous MW. This finding indicates that the underlying mechanism of trait-level association is the executive failure hypothesis, which postulates that a failure of executive control during task-related objectives evokes MW. Further, the motivation-MW relationship exhibits a different psychological basis at the state and trait levels.
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