Counting the cost of an absent mind: Mind wandering as an underrecognized influence on educational performance

Smallwood, Jonathan; Fishman, Daniel J.F.; Schooler, Jonathan W.

doi:10.3758/bf03194057

Cited by 322 publications

(312 citation statements)

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“…Previous research has shown that MW differs across contexts that vary with regard to the amount of engagement required of the individual. For example, there is a high propensity to MW during minimally engaging tasks (i.e., signal detection tasks) that require superficial levels of attention (i.e., Smallwood et al, 2007). We assumed that film comprehension would be engaging and require a moderate amount of attention, and the results seem to confirm this assumption.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

“…Tasks that require low levels of engagement have resulted in more MW than tasks that are highly engaging (Smallwood, Fishman, & Schooler, 2007). In particular, MW occurs 40% to 50% of the time during minimally engaging lab tasks, such as signal detection tasks (Smallwood et al, 2007), and while viewing online lectures (Risko, Buchanan, Medimorec, & Kingstone, 2013). It is less frequent (approximately 30%) in tasks that require a comparatively deeper level of engagement, such as reading (Smallwood et al, 2007).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, MW occurs 40% to 50% of the time during minimally engaging lab tasks, such as signal detection tasks (Smallwood et al, 2007), and while viewing online lectures (Risko, Buchanan, Medimorec, & Kingstone, 2013). It is less frequent (approximately 30%) in tasks that require a comparatively deeper level of engagement, such as reading (Smallwood et al, 2007). An interesting question pertains to the incidence of MW in contexts that are intentionally designed to sustain attention, such as viewing films.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…MW has been studied in a variety of contexts including standard lab tasks, reading, and during everyday routine activities (Smallwood & Schooler, 2015). Tasks that require low levels of engagement have resulted in more MW than tasks that are highly engaging (Smallwood, Fishman, & Schooler, 2007). In particular, MW occurs 40% to 50% of the time during minimally engaging lab tasks, such as signal detection tasks (Smallwood et al, 2007), and while viewing online lectures (Risko, Buchanan, Medimorec, & Kingstone, 2013).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, the cascading model of inattention (Smallwood, 2011;Smallwood et al, 2007) assumes that stronger situation models reduce the propensity to MW. According to this perspective, MW can have a detrimental influence on the creation of the situation model during comprehension, because MW impairs the ability to encode information at the shallow levels (Smallwood, 2011;Smallwood et al, 2007). The effect of a lack of encoding information at the shallow levels Bcascadest hrough the cognitive system hindering the creation of the situation model.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Mind wandering during film comprehension: The role of prior knowledge and situational interest

2015

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This study assessed the occurrence and factors that influence mind wandering (MW) in the domain of film comprehension. The cascading model of inattention assumes that a stronger mental representation (i.e., a situation model) during comprehension results in less MW. Accordingly, a suppression hypothesis suggests that MW would decrease as a function of having the knowledge of the plot of a film prior to viewing, because the prior-knowledge would help to strengthen the situation model during comprehension. Furthermore, an interestmoderation hypothesis would predict that the suppression effect of prior-knowledge would only emerge when there was interest in viewing the film. In the current experiment, 108 participants either read a short story that depicted the plot (i.e., priorknowledge condition) or read an unrelated story of equal length (control condition) prior to viewing the short film (32.5 minutes) entitled The Red Balloon. Participants self-reported their interest in viewing the film immediately before the film was presented. MW was tracked using a self-report method targeting instances of MW with metacognitive awareness. Participants in the priorknowledge condition reported less MW compared with the control condition, thereby supporting the suppression hypothesis. MW also decreased over the duration of the film, but only for those with prior-knowledge of the film. Finally, prior-knowledge effects on MW were only observed when interest was average or high, but not when interest was low.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mind wandering during film comprehension: The role of prior knowledge and situational interest

2015

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Mindfulness: An Antidote for Wandering Minds

Mrazek¹,

Broadway²,

Phillips³

et al. 2014

The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of Mindfulness

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Attentional Development

Ristic

Enns

2015

Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science

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This chapter documents a seismic shift that has occurred in the field of attentional development over the past decade, both in the content of the empirical data being collected and in the theoretical ideas being used to understand them. We trace the origins of this paradigm shift by first examining the past. Research during the latter half of the 20th century was dominated by the information‐processing framework, which views attention as a localizable, domain‐general, and situationally invariant cognitive faculty, with its primary role in filtering sensory information in the service of task goals. However, during the first decade of the 2000s, researchers began to study how individual, emotional, and social aspects of life influence everyday attention behavior. Mounting evidence from these studies revealed that the classic information‐processing framework could not provide a complete account of attentional development. Thus, at present, attention is becoming viewed as a concept that cannot be isolated from social and emotional aspects of development. With regard to future directions, we outline a dynamic view of attention, in which attention is viewed as a cognitive facility, integrating the demands of “cool” cognition (i.e., the information‐processing capacities) with the “hot” functions spanning temperament, emotion, social communication, individual histories, and cultural context. If this trend continues, attentional development in the next decade will be studied as the outcome of complex interactions between an individual's biology, their life history, and their social environment.

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Counting the cost of an absent mind: Mind wandering as an underrecognized influence on educational performance

Cited by 322 publications

References 36 publications

Mind wandering during film comprehension: The role of prior knowledge and situational interest

Mind wandering during film comprehension: The role of prior knowledge and situational interest

Mindfulness: An Antidote for Wandering Minds

Attentional Development

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