Mind-wandering as spontaneous thought: a dynamic framework

Christoff, Kalina; Irving, Zachary C.; Fox, Kieran C. R.; Spreng, R. Nathan; Andrews‐Hanna, Jessica R.

doi:10.1038/nrn.2016.113

Cited by 1,055 publications

(1,365 citation statements)

References 179 publications

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“…In conclusion, the last decade has witnessed unprecedented progress in advancing the science of self-generated thought (Christoff et al, 2016), and especially mind wandering (Smallwood & Schooler, 2015). However, research has been stymied by a lack of valid objective measures.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An automated behavioral measure of mind wandering during computerized reading

2017

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Mind wandering is a ubiquitous phenomenon in which attention shifts from task-related to task-unrelated thoughts. The last decade has witnessed an explosion of interest in mind wandering, but research has been stymied by a lack of objective measures, leading to a near-exclusive reliance on self-reports. We addressed this issue by developing an eye-gaze-based, machine-learned model of mind wandering during computerized reading. Data were collected in a study in which 132 participants reported self-caught mind wandering while reading excerpts from a book on a computer screen. A remote Tobii TX300 or T60 eyetracker recorded their gaze during reading. The data were used to train supervised classification models to discriminate between mind wandering and normal reading in a manner that would generalize to new participants. We found that at the point of maximal agreement between the model-based and self-reported mind-wandering means (smallest difference between the group-level means: M model = .310, M self = .319), the participant-level mind-wandering proportional distributions were similar and were significantly correlated (r = .400). The model-based estimates were internally consistent (r = .751) and predicted text comprehension more strongly than did self-reported mind wandering (rmodel = −.374, r self = −.208). Our results also indicate that a robust strategy of probabilistically predicting mind wandering in cases with poor or missing gaze data led to improved performance on all metrics, as compared to simply discarding these data. Our findings demonstrate that an automated objective measure might be available for laboratory studies of mind wandering during reading, providing an appealing alternative or complement to self-reports.Keywords Mind wandering . Reading . Eye gaze . Machine learning It is common for one's attention to shift toward spontaneously generated, task-unrelated thoughts. This phenomenon is called mind wandering. Numerous studies have investigated mind wandering across a range of tasks and have found that it occurs anywhere between 20%-50% of the time (Kane et al.,

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An automated behavioral measure of mind wandering during computerized reading

2017

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“…During undirected, awake life, humans frequently engage in mind-wandering, self-generated thoughts unrelated to the immediate sensory world (3). Based on such observations, researchers have considered that increased spontaneous DMN activation could be a neurophysiological correlate of mind-wandering (4,5).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Spontaneous default network activity reflects behavioral variability independent of mind-wandering

Kucyi

Esterman

Riley

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

138

140

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The brain's default mode network (DMN) is highly active during wakeful rest when people are not overtly engaged with a sensory stimulus or externally oriented task. In multiple contexts, increased spontaneous DMN activity has been associated with self-reported episodes of mind-wandering, or thoughts that are unrelated to the present sensory environment. Mind-wandering characterizes much of waking life and is often associated with error-prone, variable behavior. However, increased spontaneous DMN activity has also been reliably associated with stable, rather than variable, behavior. We aimed to address this seeming contradiction and to test the hypothesis that single measures of attentional states, either based on selfreport or on behavior, are alone insufficient to account for DMN activity fluctuations. Thus, we simultaneously measured varying levels of self-reported mind-wandering, behavioral variability, and brain activity with fMRI during a unique continuous performance task optimized for detecting attentional fluctuations. We found that even though mind-wandering co-occurred with increased behavioral variability, highest DMN signal levels were best explained by intense mind-wandering combined with stable behavior simultaneously, compared with considering either single factor alone. These brainbehavior-experience relationships were highly consistent within known DMN subsystems and across DMN subregions. In contrast, such relationships were absent or in the opposite direction for other attention-relevant networks (salience, dorsal attention, and frontoparietal control networks). Our results suggest that the cognitive processes that spontaneous DMN activity specifically reflects are only partially related to mind-wandering and include also attentional state fluctuations that are not captured by self-report.daydreaming | default mode network | sustained attention | spontaneous thought | resting state T he brain's default mode network (DMN) has been described as a distributed set of regions in association cortices showing increased activity during undirected, awake "resting" states relative to a wide variety of states that commonly involve externally oriented attention (1, 2). During undirected, awake life, humans frequently engage in mind-wandering, self-generated thoughts unrelated to the immediate sensory world (3). Based on such observations, researchers have considered that increased spontaneous DMN activation could be a neurophysiological correlate of mind-wandering (4, 5).Neuroimaging studies that have incorporated self-report measures suggest a role of the DMN in spontaneous cognition. Converging evidence from tasks that elicit mind-wandering (6, 7), interindividual differences in mind-wandering tendencies (8), and intraindividual fluctuations in self-reports (9-12) suggests that DMN activity is increased during stimulus-independent, taskunrelated thought. The DMN is also engaged when subjects actively think about the past, the future, and the perspectives of other people, all of which constitute the type...

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“…To resolve this apparent problem, we propose that it is important to make a distinction between intentional/unintentional mind wandering and guided/unguided thought (for a similar proposal, see Christoff, Irving, Fox, Spreng, & Andrews-Hanna, 2016;Irving, 2016). That is, rather than conceptualize mind wandering in terms of unintentional thought, it would seem more prudent to conceptualize it as reflecting unguided thought.…”

Section: The Intentionality Of Mind Wanderingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To constrain our prototypical case of mind wandering further, in line with Irving (2016) and Christoff et al (2016), we suggest that it reflects thoughts that are not guided or controlled from moment to moment (i.e., unguided thought). Indeed, as noted earlier, across numerous studies, unguided thought has frequently been implied in researchers' conceptualizations of mind wandering (e.g., Blanchard et al, 2014;Carciofo et al, 2014;Christoff et al, 2016;Qu et al, 2015;Irving, 2016;Rummel & Boywitt, 2014; for more examples, see Seli, Risko, & Smilek, 2016a, Supplemental Materials), and such a conceptualization appears to be a sensible one.…”

Section: Thoughts That Are Unguidedmentioning

confidence: 99%

What does (and should) "mind wandering" mean?

Seli¹,

Maillet²,

Schacter³

et al. 2017

Preprint

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In recent years, there has been a tremendous increase in the number of studies examining mind wandering, and research on the topic has spread widely across various domains of psychological research. As research on the topic of mind wandering has accelerated, the defining features of this conscious state have expanded, and researchers have begun to define mind wandering in conceptually and operationally different ways between -and sometimes even within -studies.Yet, despite clear differences in the definitions adopted, 'mind wandering' is often discussed in broad terms, and inferences drawn by researchers are rarely constrained to their specific operational definitions. This practice produces a lack of clarity in our understanding of mind wandering, and it can lead to illusory inconsistencies in the literature. To minimize these problems, we propose that researchers adopt a family-resemblances approach to the investigation of mind wandering, which entails (a) treating mind wandering as a heterogeneous construct and (b) more clearly measuring and describing the specific aspects of the variety of mind wandering that researchers are attempting to investigate. To help move the field forward, we delineate a prototypical case of mind wandering in the broader context of related forms of thought, which should guide the use of the term in future research.

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Mind-wandering as spontaneous thought: a dynamic framework

Cited by 1,055 publications

References 179 publications

An automated behavioral measure of mind wandering during computerized reading

An automated behavioral measure of mind wandering during computerized reading

Spontaneous default network activity reflects behavioral variability independent of mind-wandering

What does (and should) "mind wandering" mean?

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