For Whom the Mind Wanders, and When, Varies Across Laboratory and Daily-Life Settings.

ABSTRACT: Undergraduates ( N = 274) participated in a weeklong daily-life experience-sampling study of mind wandering after being assessed in the lab for executive-control abilities (working memory capacity; attention-restraint ability; attention-constraint ability; and propensity for task-unrelated thoughts, or TUTs) and personality traits. Eight times a day, electronic devices prompted subjects to report on their current thoughts and context. Working memory capacity and attention abilities predicted subjects' TUT rates in the lab, but predicted the frequency of daily-life mind wandering only as a function of subjects' momentary attempts to concentrate. This pattern replicates prior daily-life findings but conflicts with laboratory findings. Results for personality factors also revealed different a

SUBMITTER: Kane MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5591044 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature