ArticlePsychonomic bulletin & review2022
Self-reported mind wandering reflects executive control and selective attention.
Article in Psychonomic bulletin & review, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Relative Accuracy of Different Methods for Measuring Mind Wandering Subtypes: A Systematic Review.Brain and behavior · 2025Pooled it
- Inferring mind wandering from perceptual decision making.Communications psychology · 2026Article
- Introspective Access or Retrospective Inference? Mind-Wandering Reports Are Shaped by Performance Feedback.Psychological science · 2025Article
- The effects of cannabis on mind-wandering.Heliyon · 2025Article
- A tutorial on fitting joint models of M/EEG and behavior to understand cognition.Behavior research methods · 2024Article
- The Role of Momentary Dissociation in the Sensory Cortex: A Neurophysiological Review and its Implications for Maladaptive Daydreaming.Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research · 2024Review
- The Brain's Topographical Organization Shapes Dynamic Interaction Patterns That Support Flexible Behavior Based on Rules and Long-Term Knowledge.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- Collaborative Retrieval Practice Reduces Mind-Wandering During Learning.Experimental psychology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Mind wandering is ubiquitous in everyday life and has a pervasive and profound impact on task-related performance. A range of psychological processes have been proposed to underlie these performance-related decrements, including failures of executive control, volatile information processing, and shortcomings in selective attention to critical task-relevant stimuli. Despite progress in the development of such theories, existing descriptive analyses have limited capacity to discriminate between the theories. We propose a cognitive-model based analysis that simultaneously explains self-reported mind wandering and task performance. We quantitatively compare six explanations of poor performance in the presence of mind wandering. The competing theories are distinguished by whether there is an impact on executive control and, if so, how executive control acts on information processing, and whether there is an impact on volatility of information processing. Across two experiments using the sustained attention to response task, we find quantitative evidence that mind wandering is associated with two latent factors. Our strongest conclusion is that executive control is impaired: increased mind wandering is associated with reduced ability to inhibit habitual response tendencies. Our nuanced conclusion is that executive control deficits manifest in reduced ability to selectively attend to the information value of rare but task-critical events.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.