Fluctuating Minds: Spontaneous Psychophysical Variability during Mind-Wandering

Rodrigo A Henríquez, Ana B Chica, Pablo Billeke and Paolo Bartolomeo

PLOS ONE, 2016, vol. 11, issue 2, 1-10

Abstract: Mind-wandering is the occasional distraction we experience while performing a cognitive task. It arises without any external precedent, varies over time, and interferes with the processing of sensory information. Here, we asked whether the transition from the on-task state to mind-wandering is a gradual process or an abrupt event. We developed a new experimental approach, based on the continuous, online assessment of individual psychophysical performance. Probe questions were asked whenever response times (RTs) exceeded 2 standard deviations from the participant’s average RT. Results showed that mind-wandering reports were generally preceded by slower RTs, as compared to trials preceding on-task reports. Mind-wandering episodes could be reliably predicted from the response time difference between the last and the second-to-last trials. Thus, mind-wandering reports follow an abrupt increase in behavioral variability, lasting between 2.5 and 10 seconds.

Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0147174

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0147174

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