| Title |
Tracking the train of thought from the laboratory into everyday life: An experience-sampling study of mind wandering across controlled and ecological contexts
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, October 2009
|
| DOI | 10.3758/pbr.16.5.857 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Jennifer C. McVay, Michael J. Kane, Thomas R. Kwapil |
| Abstract |
In an experience-sampling study that bridged laboratory, ecological, and individual-differences approaches to mind-wandering research, 72 subjects completed an executive-control task with periodic thought probes (reported by McVay & Kane, 2009) and then carried PDAs for a week that signaled them eight times daily to report immediately whether their thoughts were off task. Subjects who reported more mind wandering during the laboratory task endorsed more mind-wandering experiences during everyday life (and were more likely to report worries as off-task thought content). We also conceptually replicated laboratory findings that mind wandering predicts task performance: Subjects rated their daily-life performance to be impaired when they reported off-task thoughts, with greatest impairment when subjects' mind wandering lacked metaconsciousness. The propensity to mind wander appears to be a stable cognitive characteristic and seems to predict performance difficulties in daily life, just as it does in the laboratory. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 2 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 1 | 50% |
| Unknown | 1 | 50% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 2 | 100% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 321 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 8 | 2% |
| Italy | 3 | <1% |
| United Kingdom | 2 | <1% |
| Germany | 1 | <1% |
| Spain | 1 | <1% |
| Belgium | 1 | <1% |
| Unknown | 305 | 95% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 86 | 27% |
| Student > Master | 42 | 13% |
| Researcher | 41 | 13% |
| Student > Bachelor | 33 | 10% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 21 | 7% |
| Other | 59 | 18% |
| Unknown | 39 | 12% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Psychology | 188 | 59% |
| Neuroscience | 22 | 7% |
| Business, Management and Accounting | 12 | 4% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 10 | 3% |
| Computer Science | 9 | 3% |
| Other | 33 | 10% |
| Unknown | 47 | 15% |