The role of mind-wandering in measurements of general aptitude

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

Volumn 141, Issue 4, 2012, Pages 788-798

  Mrazek, Michael D ^a   Smallwood, Jonathan ^b   Franklin, Michael S ^a   Chin, Jason M ^a   Baird, Benjamin ^a   Schooler, Jonathan W ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^b MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN COGNITIVE AND BRAIN SCIENCES   (Germany)

Author keywords

Attention; Executive function; Fluid Intelligence; Mind Wandering; Working memory capacity

Indexed keywords

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; APTITUDE; ARTICLE; ATTENTION; EXECUTIVE FUNCTION; FEMALE; HUMAN; INTELLIGENCE; MALE; NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL TEST; PHYSIOLOGY; PSYCHOLOGICAL MODEL; SHORT TERM MEMORY; STANDARD;

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; APTITUDE; ATTENTION; EXECUTIVE FUNCTION; FEMALE; HUMANS; INTELLIGENCE; MALE; MEMORY, SHORT-TERM; MODELS, PSYCHOLOGICAL; NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS; YOUNG ADULT;

EID: 84871819213     PISSN: 00963445     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1037/a0027968     Document Type: Article

References (52)

1. Baars, B. J. (2010). Spontaneous repetitive thoughts can be adaptive: Postscript on "mind wandering." Psychological Bulletin, 136, 208.
2. Baird, B., Smallwood, J., Mrazek, M. D., Kam, J., Franklin, M. S., & Schooler, J. W. (2012). Mind-wandering facilitates creative incubation. Manuscript submitted for publication.
3. Baird, B., Smallwood, J., & Schooler, J. W. (2011). Back to the future: Autobiographical planning and the functionality of mind-wandering. Consciousness and Cognition, 20, 1604-1611. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2011.08.007
4. Barron, E., Riby, L. M., Greer, J., & Smallwood, J. (2011). Absorbed in thought: The effect of mind wandering on the processing of relevant and irrelevant events. Psychological Science, 22, 596-601. doi:10.1177/0956797611404083
5. Bland, J. M., & Altman, D. G. (1995). Statistics notes: Calculating correlation coefficients with repeated observations: Part 1. Correlation within subjects. British Medical Journal, 310, 446. doi:10.1136/bmj.310.6977.446
6. Cheyne, J. A., Solman, G. J. F., Carriere, J. S. A., & Smilek, D. (2009). Anatomy of an error: A bidirectional state model of task engagement/ disengagement and attention-related errors. Cognition, 111, 98-113. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2008.12.009
7. Christoff, K., Gordon, A. M., Smallwood, J., Smith, R., & Schooler, J. W. (2009). Experience sampling during fMRI reveals default network and executive system contributions to mind wandering. PNAS: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 106, 8719-8724. doi:10.1073/pnas.0900234106
8. Conway, A. R. A., Cowan, N., Bunting, M. F., Therriault, D., & Minkoff, S. (2002). A latent variable analysis of working memory capacity, short term memory capacity, processing speed, and general fluid intelligence. Intelligence, 30, 163-183. doi:10.1016/S0160-2896(01)00096-4
9. Conway, A. R. A., Jarrold, C., Kane, M. J., Miyake, A., & Towse, J. (2007). Variation in working memory. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
10. Conway, A. R. A., Kane, M. J., Bunting, M. F., Hambrick, D. Z., Wilhelm, O., & Engle, R. W. (2005). Working memory span tasks: A methodological review and user's guide. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12, 769-786. doi:10.3758/BF03196772
11. Cook, T. D., & Campbell, D. T. (1979). Quasi-experimentation: Design & analysis issues for field settings. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally.
12. Deary, I. J., Strand, S., Smith, P., & Fernandes, C. (2007). Intelligence and educational achievement. Intelligence, 35, 13-21. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2006.02.001
13. Engle, R. W., & Kane, M. J. (2003). Executive attention, working memory capacity, and a two-factor theory of cognitive control. In B. H. Ross (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (Vol. 44, pp. 145-199). New York, NY: Elsevier Science. doi:10.1016/S0079-7421(03)44005-X
14. Engle, R. W., Tuholski, S. W., Laughlin, J. E., & Conway, A. R. A. (1999). Working memory, short-term memory, and general fluid intelligence: A latent-variable approach. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 128, 309-331. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.128.3.309
15. Franklin, M. S., Smallwood, J., & Schooler, J. (2011). Catching the mind in flight: Using behavioral indices to detect mindless reading in real time. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18, 992-997. doi:10.3758/s13423-011-0109-6
16. Frey, M. C., & Detterman, D. K. (2004). Scholastic assessment or g? The relationship between the Scholastic Assessment Test and general cognitive ability. Psychological Science, 15, 373-378. doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00687.x
17. Heitz, R. P., Schrock, J. C., Payne, T. W., & Engle, R. W. (2008). Effects of incentive on working memory capacity: Behavioral and pupillometric data. Psychophysiology, 45, 119-129.
18. Jaeggi, S. M., Buschkuehl, M., Jonides, J., & Perrig, W. J. (2008). Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory. PNAS: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 105, 6829-6833. doi:10.1073/pnas.0801268105
19. Jha, A. P., Stanley, E. A., Kiyonaga, A., Wong, L., & Gelfand, L. (2010). Examining the protective effects of mindfulness training on working memory capacity and affective experience in a military cohort. Emotion, 10, 54-64. doi:10.1037/a0018438
20. Kam, J. W. Y., Dao, E., Farley, J., Fitzpatrick, K., Smallwood, J., Schooler, J. W., & Handy, T. C. (2011). Slow fluctuations in attentional control of sensory cortex. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23, 460-470. doi:10.1162/jocn.2010.21443
21. Kane, M. J., Brown, L. H., McVay, J. C., Silvial, P. J., Myin-Germeys, I., & Kwapil, T. R. (2007). For whom the mind wanders, and when: An experience-sampling study of working memory and executive control in daily life. Psychological Science, 18, 614-621. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01948.x
22. Kane, M. J., Conway, A. R. A., Hambrick, D. Z., & Engle, R. W. (2007). Variation in working memory as variation in executive attention and control. In A. R. A. Conway, C. Jarrold, M. J. Kane, A. Miyake, & J. N. Towse (Eds.), Variation in working memory (pp. 21-48). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
23. Kane, M. J., Hambrick, D. Z., & Conway, A. R. A. (2005). Working memory capacity and fluid intelligence are strongly related constructs: Comment on Ackerman, Beier, and Boyle (2005). Psychological Bulletin, 131, 66-71. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.131.1.66
24. Kline, R. B. (2011). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
25. Matthews, G., Joyner, L., Gilliland, K., Huggins, J., & Falconer, S. (1999). Validation of a comprehensive stress state questionnaire: Towards a state big three? In I. Merville, I. J. Deary, F. DeFruyt, & F. Ostendorf (Eds.), Personality psychology in Europe (pp. 335-350). Tilburg, the Netherlands: Tilburg University Press.
26. McVay, J. C., & Kane, M. J. (2009). Conducting the train of thought: Working memory capacity, goal neglect, and mind wandering in an executive-control task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35, 196-204. doi:10.1037/a0014104
27. McVay, J. C., & Kane, M. J. (2010a). Adrift in the stream of consciousness: The effects of mind wandering on executive control and working memory capacity. In A. Gruszka, G. Matthews, & B. Szymura (Eds.), Handbook on individual differences in cognition (pp. 321-334). New York, NY: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-1210-7_19
28. McVay, J. C., & Kane, M. J. (2010b). Does mind wandering reflect executive function or executive failure? Comment on Smallwood and Schooler (2006) and Watkins (2008). Psychological Bulletin, 136, 188-197. doi:10.1037/a0018298
29. Mrazek, M. D., Chin, J. M., Schmader, T., Hartson, K. A., Smallwood, J., & Schooler, J. W. (2011). Threatened to distraction: Mind-wandering as a consequence of stereotype threat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 1243-1248. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2011.05.011
30. Mrazek, M. D., Smallwood, J., & Schooler, J. W. (2012). Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. Emotion. Advance online publication. doi:10.1037/a0026678
31. Prado, J., & Weissman, D. H. (2011). Heightened interactions between a key default-mode region and a key task-positive region are linked to suboptimal current performance but enhanced future performance. NeuroImage, 56, 2276-2282. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.03.048
32. Raven, J. (1938). Raven Progressive Matrices. Los Angeles, CA: Western Psychological Services.
33. Reichle, E. D., Reineberg, A. E., & Schooler, J. W. (2010). Eye movements during mindless reading. Psychological Science, 21, 1300-1310. doi:10.1177/0956797610378686
34. Rohde, T. E., & Thompson, L. A. (2007). Predicting academic achievement with cognitive ability. Intelligence, 35, 83-92. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2006.05.004
35. Salthouse, T. A., & Pink, J. E. (2008). Why is working memory related to fluid intelligence? Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 15, 364-371. doi:10.3758/PBR.15.2.364
36. Sarason, I. G. (1984). Stress, anxiety, and cognitive interference: Reactions to tests. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 929-938. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.46.4.929
37. Schmitt, N., Billington, A., Keeney, J., Oswald, F. L., Pleskac, T., Sinha, R., & Zorzie, M. (2009). Prediction of 4-year college student performance using cognitive and noncognitive predictors and the impact on demographic status of admitted students. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, 1479-1497. doi:10.1037/a0016810
38. Schooler, J. W., Reichle, E. D., & Halpern, D. V. (2004). Zoning-out during reading: Evidence for dissociations between experience and meta-consciousness. In D. T. Levin (Ed.), Thinking and seeing: Visual metacognition in adults and children (pp. 204-226). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
39. Schooler, J. W., Smallwood, J., Christoff, K., Handy, T. C., Reichle, E. D., & Sayette, M. A. (2011). Meta-awareness, perceptual decoupling and the wandering mind. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15, 319-326.
40. Schweizer, K., & Moosbrugger, H. (2004). Attention and working memory as predictors of intelligence, Intelligence, 32, 329-347. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2004.06.006
41. Smallwood, J. (2010). Why the global availability of mind wandering necessitates resource competition: Reply to McVay and Kane (2010). Psychological Bulletin, 136, 2, 202-207. doi:10.1037/a0018673
42. Smallwood, J. (2011). Mind wandering while reading: Attentional decoupling, mindless reading and the cascade model of inattention. Language and Linguistics Compass, 5, 63-77. doi:10.1111/j.1749-818X.2010.00263.x
43. Smallwood, J., Beach, E., Schooler, J. W., & Handy, T. (2008). Going AWOL in the brain: Mind wandering reduces cortical analysis of external events. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20, 458-469. doi:10.1162/jocn.2008.20037
44. Smallwood, J., Davies, J. B., Heim, D., Finnigan, F., Sudberry, M., O'Connor, R., & Obonsawin, M. (2004). Subjective experience and attentional lapse: Task engagement and disengagement during sustained attention. Consciousness and Cognition, 13, 657-690. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2004.06.003
45. Smallwood, J. M., Baracaia, S. F., Lowe, M., & Obonsawin, M. (2003). Task unrelated thought whilst encoding information. Consciousness and Cognition, 12, 452-484. doi:10.1016/S1053-8100(03)00018-7
46. Smallwood, J., McSpadden, M., & Schooler, J. W. (2008). When attention matters: The curious incident of the wandering mind. Memory & Cognition, 36, 1144-1150. doi:10.3758/MC.36.6.1144
47. Tang, Y.-Y., Ma, Y., Wang, J., Fan, Y., Feng, S., Lu, Q., Posner, M. I. (2007). Short-term meditation training improves attention and selfregulation. PNAS: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 104, 17152-17156. doi:10.1073/pnas.0707678104
48. Teasdale, J. D., Dritschel, B. H., Taylor, M. J., Proctor, L., Lloyd, C. A., Nimmo-Smith, I., & Baddleley, A. D. (1995). Stimulus-independentthought depends on central executive resources. Memory & Cognition, 23, 551-559. doi:10.3758/BF03197257
49. Te Nijenhuis, J., van Vianen, A. E., & van der Flier, H. (2007). Score gains on g-loaded tests: No g. Intelligence, 35, 283-300. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2006.07.006
50. Unsworth, N., & Engle, R. W. (2005). Working memory capacity and fluid abilities: Examining the correlation between operation span and Raven. Intelligence, 33, 67-81. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2004.08.003
51. Unsworth, N., Heitz, R. P., Schrock, J. C., & Engle, R. W. (2005). An automated version of the operation span task. Behavior Research Methods, 37, 498-505. doi:10.3758/BF03192720
52. Unsworth, N., Redick, T. S., Lakey, C. E., & Young, D. L. (2010). Lapses in sustained attention and their relation to executive control and fluid abilities: An individual differences investigation. Intelligence, 38, 111-122. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2009.08.002