Thoughts in Flight

Casner, Stephen M.; Schooler, Jonathan W.

doi:10.1177/0018720813501550

Cited by 57 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…If attentional PM processing indeed reflects strategic decisions about how to succeed in an ongoing task without forgetting one's intentions, it is plausible that, when holding intentions, people not only shift attention between the ongoing task and the PM task, but also become more consciously focused on the overall PM/ongoing-task ensemble. This idea is also well in line with the idea from the mind-wandering literature that TUTs interfere with most concurrent tasks, especially when these are demanding, and that task engagement is thus adjusted to current cognitive demands (Casner & Schooler, 2014;Kane et al, 2007;Rummel & Boywitt, 2014). The present finding of a stronger on-task focus (i.e., fewer TUTs) in the presence of a pending intention renders the first empirical support for this idea: people's minds seem to wander less while holding a PM intention in addition to engaging in their ongoing activities.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Dealing with prospective memory demands while performing an ongoing task: Shared processing, increased on-task focus, or both?

Rummel

Smeekens

Kane

2017

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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Prospective memory (PM) is the cognitive ability to remember to fulfill intended action plans at the appropriate future moment. Current theories assume that PM fulfillment draws on attentional processes. Accordingly, pending PM intentions interfere with other ongoing tasks to the extent to which both tasks rely on the same processes. How do people manage the competition between PM and ongoing-task demands? Based on research relating mind wandering and attentional control (Kane & McVay, 2012), we argue that people may not only change the way they process ongoing-task stimuli when given a PM intention, but they may also engage in less off-task thinking than they otherwise would. That is, people focus more strongly on the tasks at hand and dedicate considerable conscious thought to the PM goal. We tested this hypothesis by asking subjects to periodically report on their thoughts during prototypical PM (and control) tasks. Task-unrelated thought rates dropped when participants performed an ongoing task while holding a PM intention versus performing the ongoing task alone (Experiment 1), even when PM demands were minimized (Experiment 2) and more so when PM execution was especially rewarded (Experiment 3). Our findings suggest that PM demands not only elicit a cost to ongoing-task processing, but they also induce a stronger on-task focus and promote conscious thoughts about the PM intention. (PsycINFO Database Record

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Dealing with prospective memory demands while performing an ongoing task: Shared processing, increased on-task focus, or both?

Rummel

Smeekens

Kane

2017

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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“…A decrement in external stimuli processing is particularly true within monotonous and uninteresting environments (Mosier et al, 1994). In the operational context, studies point to MW as a possible cause of many driving accidents (Galera et al, 2012), plane crashes (Casner and Schooler, 2013), and medical errors (van Charante et al, 1993), maybe due to a lack of a proper model of the situation in critical moments. Smallwood et al (2007, 2011) developed the cascading model of inattention in order to offer an explanation.…”

Section: Mind Wandering To Complete Ootl Theoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Casner and Schooler (2013) highlighted the blurry situation of pilots left with spare time and no guidance about how to actively monitor the automation. This spare time could encourage the operators to think about unrelated concerns and this would drive them away from important matters, such as their current position or the mode of the system.…”

Section: Mind Wandering To Complete Ootl Theoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In brain imaging studies, MW is characterized by the activation of the Default Mode Network, a widely distributed brain region comprised of medial prefrontal cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex (Mason et al, 2007; Christoff et al, 2009; Christoff, 2012; Konishi et al, 2015). Even though MW is thought to facilitate prospection, introspection and problem solving (Smallwood and Schooler, 2006), performance drops in numerous tasks has been observed during MW episodes (He et al, 2011; Galera et al, 2012; Schad et al, 2012; Bastian and Sackur, 2013; Casner and Schooler, 2013, 2015; Yanko and Spalek, 2014; Berthié et al, 2015). Several aspects outline a possible role of MW in OOTL in highly reliable automated environments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Autopilot, Mind Wandering, and the Out of the Loop Performance Problem

2017

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To satisfy the increasing demand for safer critical systems, engineers have integrated higher levels of automation, such as glass cockpits in aircraft, power plants, and driverless cars. These guiding principles relegate the operator to a monitoring role, increasing risks for humans to lack system understanding. The out of the loop performance problem arises when operators suffer from complacency and vigilance decrement; consequently, when automation does not behave as expected, understanding the system or taking back manual control may be difficult. Close to the out of the loop problem, mind wandering points to the propensity of the human mind to think about matters unrelated to the task at hand. This article reviews the literature related to both mind wandering and the out of the loop performance problem as it relates to task automation. We highlight studies showing how these phenomena interact with each other while impacting human performance within highly automated systems. We analyze how this proximity is supported by effects observed in automated environment, such as decoupling, sensory attention, and cognitive comprehension decrease. We also show that this link could be useful for detecting out of the loop situations through mind wandering markers. Finally, we examine the limitations of the current knowledge because many questions remain open to characterize interactions between out of the loop, mind wandering, and automation.

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“…This boredom at work is a source of stress and addiction, according to data from the literature [5][6][7][8][9]. Most of the studies on boredom in working populations have been performed for air and road transport [9,10].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%