Testing the construct validity of competing measurement approaches to probed mind-wandering reports

Kane, Michael J.; Smeekens, Bridget A.; Meier, Matt E.; Welhaf, Matthew S.; Phillips, Natalie E.

doi:10.3758/s13428-021-01557-x

Cited by 66 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 214 publications

(281 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…It is an open question as to whether individuals can make a binary distinction between these phenomenologies, much less distinguish in more granularity to respond to the question if it were a Likert scale. Following the efforts made by Kane et al (2021), future research should examine whether using a continuous scale to measure freely moving thought offers any benefit compared with dichotomization 6 . Because the superiority of one measurement decision over the other has not been established, we focus on the limitations of having the dynamic thought probe as a single item, rather than the granularity of the scale itself.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Fixation, flexibility, and creativity: The dynamics of mind wandering.

Smith¹,

Brosowsky²,

Murray³

et al. 2022

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The mind-wandering literature is long on results and short on theory. One notable exception is the Dynamic Framework, a theoretical framework that characterizes mind wandering as thoughts that are relatively unconstrained from deliberate and automatic sources, or “freely moving.” Critically, this framework makes numerous testable predictions, including (a) a positive association between freely moving thought and ADHD, (b) negative associations between freely moving thought and depression, anxiety, and OCD, and (c) a positive association between freely moving thought and divergent thinking ability. In Study 1, to test these predictions, we measured participants’ reports of freely moving thoughts during a cognitive task and assessed divergent thinking and various psychopathological symptoms. Results failed to support any of the Dynamic Framework’s predictions. In Study 2, we assessed the predicted relations between freely moving thought and divergent-thinking performance by manipulating thought constraint during a creative-incubation interval that preceded a divergent-thinking task. Here, we found some evidence (albeit very weak) to support the Dynamic Framework’s prediction. Finally, in Study 3, we examined the possibility that indexing freely moving thought during a divergent-thinking task would yield the predicted associations but failed to find support for these associations. These results, most of which are at odds with the predictions of the Dynamic Framework, suggest either the need to revise the framework and/or that current methods are inadequate to properly test these predictions.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We analyzed data from 225 participants, whereas Alperin et al,analyzed data from 79. 6 Notably, Kane et al (2021) found that using a continuous measure of the perceived depth of a mind wandering episode offered negligible benefit compared with a dichotomous forced-choice response.…”

Section: Open Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fixation, flexibility, and creativity: The dynamics of mind wandering.

Smith¹,

Brosowsky²,

Murray³

et al. 2022

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A recent report from Kane et al, ( 2021 ) reviewed potential confounds to experience sampling and demonstrated that the reliability and validity of experience sampling reports partly depended on how probes asked about TUTs in laboratory settings. In short, they found that responses to probes similar to those used in the current studies could be influenced by participants’ reactions to their performance on in-lab tasks and may be confounded with participants’ confidence in their probe responses.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Task-unrelated thought increases after consumption of COVID-19 and general news

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs) are frequent distractions from our everyday tasks, which can reduce productivity and safety during task performance. This necessitates the examination of factors that modulate TUT occurrence in daily life. One factor that has previously been implicated as a source of TUT is personally salient concerns. External factors such as news media serve as cues for these concerns, potentially increasing TUT occurrence. However, this has not been thoroughly examined in everyday life settings. We thus utilized Ecological Momentary Assessment to survey participants throughout the day for ten days, on their TUTs and news consumption in two separate studies. Study 1 focused on the impact of news related to the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic, as a common and global concern. We found that TUT occurrence was significantly predicted by COVID-19 news consumption, such that TUT occurrence increased with COVID-19 news consumption. To extend these findings, we implemented Study 2 using similar methods, but focusing on the consumption of news media in general. TUT occurrence was predicted by general news consumption, with an increase in reports of TUT following consumption of news media in general. We thus extended the association found between TUT and COVID-19-related news in Study 1, to any news topic in Study 2. We speculate that the increase in TUTs was due to heightened salience of current concerns, cued by the news. These findings highlight the importance of considering when we choose to consume news media and the value of examining contextual factors when studying TUTs in daily life.

show abstract

“…TUTs were assessed differently in each experiment. Experiment 1 measured TUTs at the end of the lecture via a 1–7 rating scale about the extent of mind wandering; such retrospective ratings, however, are vulnerable to memory and aggregation errors, as well as response biases, that may reduce their validity compared to in-the-moment thought reports (Kane, Smeekens, et al, 2021 ). Experiment 2 measured TUTs in the moment, with an experience-sampling probe inserted into each of the four lecture segments that asked whether subjects were just mind wandering.…”

Section: Effects Of Interpolated Testing and Pretesting On Tutsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pretesting lecture material, either all at once or before each segment, thus appeared to reduce attention failures during learning. But, as in one of the studies showing that interpolated testing reduced mind-wandering (Szpunar, Khan, et al, 2013 ), attention was assessed with a retrospective-report measure of questionable construct validity (Kane, Smeekens, et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Effects Of Interpolated Testing and Pretesting On Tutsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interpolated testing and content pretesting as interventions to reduce task-unrelated thoughts during a video lecture

Welhaf,

Phillips,

Smeekens

et al. 2022

Cogn. Research

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Considerable research has examined the prevalence and apparent consequences of task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs) in both laboratory and authentic educational settings. Few studies, however, have explored methods to reduce TUTs during learning; those few studies tested small samples or used unvalidated TUT assessments. The present experimental study attempted to conceptually replicate or extend previous findings of interpolated testing and pretesting effects on TUT and learning. In a study of 195 U.S. undergraduates, we investigated whether interpolated testing (compared to interpolated restudy) and pretesting on lecture-relevant materials (compared to pretesting on conceptually related but lecture-irrelevant materials) would reduce TUTs during a video lecture on introductory statistics. Subjects completed either a content-matched or content-mismatched pretest on statistics concepts and then watched a narrated lecture slideshow. During the lecture, half of the sample completed interpolated tests on the lecture material and half completed interpolated restudy of that material. All subjects responded to unpredictably presented thought probes during the video to assess their immediately preceding thoughts, including TUTs. Following the lecture, students reported on their situational interest elicited by the lecture and then completed a posttest. Interpolated testing significantly reduced TUT rates during the lecture compared to restudying, conceptually replicating previous findings—but with a small effect size and no supporting Bayes-factor evidence. We found statistical evidence for neither an interpolated testing effect on learning, nor an effect of matched-content pretesting on TUT rates or learning. Interpolated testing might have limited utility to support students’ attention, but varying effect sizes across studies warrants further work.

show abstract

Testing the construct validity of competing measurement approaches to probed mind-wandering reports

Cited by 66 publications

References 214 publications

Fixation, flexibility, and creativity: The dynamics of mind wandering.

Fixation, flexibility, and creativity: The dynamics of mind wandering.

Task-unrelated thought increases after consumption of COVID-19 and general news

Interpolated testing and content pretesting as interventions to reduce task-unrelated thoughts during a video lecture

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About