Examining the Impact of Mind Wandering on Task Performance: Does Task Difficulty Matter?
Abstract
Mind wandering is a phenomenon in which an individual’s thoughts drift from the current task to a task unrelated thought (TUT). It is known to be affected by various factors such as state of mind, neuroticism, and boredom which may differ for each individual. Task difficulty appears to impact mind wandering rates, such that mind wandering increases on tasks with lower difficulty (Seli et al., 2018). However, prior work has not examined how emotionally valenced mind wandering impact task performance at different levels of task difficulty. Mind wandering typically predicts poorer ongoing task performance (McVay & Kane, 2010) and negatively valenced mind wandering appears to be more consistently associate with poorer task performance (Banks et al. 2016; Goller et al., 2020). The current study analyzed the impact of emotionally valenced mind wandering on working memory task performance at two levels of difficulty. One hundred and fifty subjects completed the n-back working memory task with 1-back and 2-back difficulty levels. The results replicate previous findings that neutral and positive task unrelated thoughts (TUTs) are not uniquely related to negative performance on the easy task. Only negative TUTs predicted decreased accuracy for the easy level of the working memory task (1-back). However, during the more difficult task (2-back), both negative and neutral TUTs predicted decreased accuracy on task performance. Critically, negatively valenced emotion was correlated with decreased accuracy for both tasks, irrespective of the difficulty level, which may indicate emotional valence plays a crucial role in the understanding of mind wandering.
Faculty Sponsors
Dr. Jonathan Banks
Project Type
Event
Location
Alvin Sherman Library
Start Date
4-6-2022 12:00 PM
End Date
4-7-2022 5:00 PM
Examining the Impact of Mind Wandering on Task Performance: Does Task Difficulty Matter?
Alvin Sherman Library
Mind wandering is a phenomenon in which an individual’s thoughts drift from the current task to a task unrelated thought (TUT). It is known to be affected by various factors such as state of mind, neuroticism, and boredom which may differ for each individual. Task difficulty appears to impact mind wandering rates, such that mind wandering increases on tasks with lower difficulty (Seli et al., 2018). However, prior work has not examined how emotionally valenced mind wandering impact task performance at different levels of task difficulty. Mind wandering typically predicts poorer ongoing task performance (McVay & Kane, 2010) and negatively valenced mind wandering appears to be more consistently associate with poorer task performance (Banks et al. 2016; Goller et al., 2020). The current study analyzed the impact of emotionally valenced mind wandering on working memory task performance at two levels of difficulty. One hundred and fifty subjects completed the n-back working memory task with 1-back and 2-back difficulty levels. The results replicate previous findings that neutral and positive task unrelated thoughts (TUTs) are not uniquely related to negative performance on the easy task. Only negative TUTs predicted decreased accuracy for the easy level of the working memory task (1-back). However, during the more difficult task (2-back), both negative and neutral TUTs predicted decreased accuracy on task performance. Critically, negatively valenced emotion was correlated with decreased accuracy for both tasks, irrespective of the difficulty level, which may indicate emotional valence plays a crucial role in the understanding of mind wandering.
