Eye behavior predicts susceptibility to visual distraction during internally directed cognition

Abstract

When we engage in internally directed cognition (e.g. planning or imagination), our eye behavior decouples from external stimuli and couples to internal representations (e.g. internal visualizations of ideas). Here, we investigated whether eye behavior predicts the susceptibility to visual distraction during internally directed cognition. To this end, participants performed a divergent thinking task — which required internally directed cognition to generate creative ideas—while being confronted with distractor pictures. We used multi-level mixed models to relate eye parameters right before distractor onset to visual distraction. In Study 1 (N = 38), visual distraction was predicted by increased saccade and blink rate, and higher pupil dilation. We replicated these findings in Study 2 using the same task but with less predictable distractor onsets and a larger sample (N = 144). The large sample further enabled us to explore how individual differences in the susceptibility to visual distraction relate to cognitive ability and task performance. Taken together, variation in eye behavior was found to be a consistent predictor of visual distraction during internally directed cognition, which highlights the usefulness of eye parameters as indicators of internal vs. external attentional focus and distractibility during complex mental tasks.

Does the type of mind wandering matter? Extending the inquiry about the role of mind wandering in the IT use experience

“…Consequently, it is clear that mind wandering can have a significant effect on temporal disassociation, which is part of cognitive absorption. Since both varieties of mind wandering relate to perceptual decoupling (Smallwood and Schooler, 2015;Annerer-Walcher et al, 2020;Schooler et al, 2011;Zedelius and Schooler, 2018), we assume that it likewise positively correlates with temporal disassociation. We thus propose that both MWT-S and MWT-D positively correlated with temporal disassociation (H2a and H2b).…”

Leer en contextos de distracción: el rol de la inhibición y el establecimiento de objetivos en la comprensión de textos académicos digitales

“…El control inhibitorio desempeña tres funciones: eliminación de la respuesta automática (capacidad de anular una respuesta automática), rechazo de la interferencia distractora (capacidad de suprimir información irrelevante) y resistencia a la interferencia proactiva (capacidad de cancelar el recuerdo de información relevante para tareas previas) (Friedman y Miyake, 2004). En este estudio, la inhibición se midió de manera indirecta, mediante la presencia de distractores que aparecen como ventanas emergentes (pop-up) durante la lectura, dado que investigaciones previas sostienen que mantener la atención en información relevante para una tarea mientras se ignora un elemento distractor representa una alta exigencia cognitiva, especialmente durante periodos extensos de tiempo (Annerer-Walcher et al, 2020). Dependiendo de las características de la tarea y los recursos cognitivos, la atención puede variar desde una absorción profunda hasta una susceptibilidad considerable a la distracción (Wilcockson et al, 2019), lo que podría estar asociado con el rendimiento en tareas que implican la comprensión de un texto.…”