SynthesisScientific reports2023
Ecological momentary assessment of mind-wandering: meta-analysis and systematic review.
Synthesis in Scientific reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
18 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
- Are the correlates of mind wandering consistent across younger and older adults?Psychological research · 2026Article
- Capturing naturalistic thoughts using a precision experience sampling idiographic approach.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2026Article
- Feasibility of Internet-Based Mind-Body Training for Adults With Subjective Cognitive Decline: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Not all task-unrelated thoughts (TUT) are created equal - TUT characteristics as predictors of affective states and heart-rate variability.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Temporal signatures of thought-neurodynamics distinguish on- and off-task thoughts.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Mapping the Relationship Between Core Executive Functions and Mind Wandering in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review.Journal of Intelligence · 2026Review
- Inattention and Hyperactivity Symptom Dimensions of ADHD Differentially Moderate the Relationship Between Concurrent Attention States and Affective Valence.Journal of attention disorders · 2026Article
- Mind-wandering in China and the UK: evidence of cross-cultural consistency.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Brain signal complexity tracks mind-wandering and visual perceptual learning.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- A primer on meta-awareness of mind wandering in schizotypy and schizophrenia.Psychological research · 2025Review
- Longitudinal User Engagement with Microinteraction Ecological Momentary Assessment (μEMA).Proceedings of the ACM on interactive, mobile, wearable and ubiquitous technologies · 2025Article
- Task difficulty modulates the effect of mind wandering on phase dynamics.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Daily dynamics of the temporal orientations of mind wandering: chronotype matters!Neuroscience of consciousness · 2025Article
- Brain-based predictive modeling of mind-wandering and involuntary thought: the idiographic approach.Technology, mind, and behavior · 2025Article
- The brief mind wandering three-factor scale (BMW-3).Behavior research methods · 2024Article
- Measuring mind wandering with experience sampling during task performance: An item response theory investigation.Behavior research methods · 2024Article
- Antecedents of mind wandering states in healthy aging and mild cognitive impairment.Neuropsychology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Mind-wandering (MW) is a universal human phenomenon and revealing its nature contributes to understanding consciousness. The ecological momentary assessment (EMA), in which subjects report a momentary mental state, is a suitable method to investigate MW in a natural environment. Previous studies employed EMA to study MW and attempted to answer the most fundamental question: How often do we let our minds wander? However, reported MW occupancies vary widely among studies. Further, while some experimental settings may induce bias in MW reports, these designs have not been explored. Therefore, we searched PubMed and Web of Science for articles published until the end of 2020 and systematically reviewed 25 articles, and performed meta-analyses on 17 of them. Our meta-analysis found that people spend 34.504% of daily life in mind-wandering, and meta-regression revealed that using subject smartphones for EMA, frequent sampling, and long experimental duration significantly affect MW reports. This result indicates that EMA using subject smartphones may tend to collect sampling under habitual smartphone use. Furthermore, these results indicate the existence of reactivity, even in MW research. We provide fundamental knowledge of MW and discuss rough standards for EMA settings in future MW studies.
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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.