Conducting the Train of Thought: Working Memory Capacity, Goal Neglect, and Mind Wandering in an Executive-control Task

Overview

Journal J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn

Publisher American Psychological Association

Specialty Psychology

Date 2009 Feb 13

PMID 19210090

Citations 208

Authors

Jennifer C McVay

Michael J Kane

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

On the basis of the executive-attention theory of working memory capacity (WMC; e.g., M. J. Kane, A. R. A. Conway, D. Z. Hambrick, & R. W. Engle, 2007), the authors tested the relations among WMC, mind wandering, and goal neglect in a sustained attention to response task (SART; a go/no-go task). In 3 SART versions, making conceptual versus perceptual processing demands, subjects periodically indicated their thought content when probed following rare no-go targets. SART processing demands did not affect mind-wandering rates, but mind-wandering rates varied with WMC and predicted goal-neglect errors in the task; furthermore, mind-wandering rates partially mediated the WMC-SART relation, indicating that WMC-related differences in goal neglect were due, in part, to variation in the control of conscious thought.

Citing Articles

Who can strategically modulate mind wandering? A preregistered replication and extension of Seli et al. (2018).

Welhaf M, Bugg J, Banks J Psychon Bull Rev. 2025; .

PMID: 39904841 DOI: 10.3758/s13423-025-02650-4.

Differences in ongoing thought between autistic and non-autistic adults.

Strawson W, Mckeown B, Quadt L, Wang H, Larrson D, Mulcahy J Sci Rep. 2024; 14(1):29236.

PMID: 39587112 PMC: 11589611. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-78286-6.

Color and brightness at work: Shedding some light on mind wandering.

Soltanzadeh S, Chitsaz S, Kazemi R Brain Behav. 2024; 14(9):e70020.

PMID: 39295080 PMC: 11410860. DOI: 10.1002/brb3.70020.

The brief mind wandering three-factor scale (BMW-3).

Schubert A, Frischkorn G, Sadus K, Welhaf M, Kane M, Rummel J Behav Res Methods. 2024; 56(8):8720-8744.

PMID: 39259475 PMC: 11525255. DOI: 10.3758/s13428-024-02500-6.

A meta-analysis on the relationship between subjective cognitive failures as measured by the cognitive failures questionnaire (CFQ) and objective performance on executive function tasks.

Goodhew S, Edwards M Psychon Bull Rev. 2024; .

PMID: 39249726 DOI: 10.3758/s13423-024-02573-6.

References

Logan G, Van Zandt T, Verbruggen F, Wagenmakers E . On the ability to inhibit thought and action: general and special theories of an act of control. Psychol Rev. 2014; 121(1):66-95. DOI: 10.1037/a0035230. View

Brown K, Ryan R . The benefits of being present: mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2003; 84(4):822-48. DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.84.4.822. View

Bar M . The proactive brain: using analogies and associations to generate predictions. Trends Cogn Sci. 2007; 11(7):280-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2007.05.005. View

Kane M, Brown L, McVay J, Silvia P, Myin-Germeys I, Kwapil T . For whom the mind wanders, and when: an experience-sampling study of working memory and executive control in daily life. Psychol Sci. 2007; 18(7):614-21. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01948.x. View

Smallwood J, Davies J, Heim D, Finnigan F, Sudberry M, OConnor R . Subjective experience and the attentional lapse: task engagement and disengagement during sustained attention. Conscious Cogn. 2004; 13(4):657-90. DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2004.06.003. View

Smallwood J, Obonsawin M, Heim D . Task unrelated thought: the role of distributed processing. Conscious Cogn. 2003; 12(2):169-89. DOI: 10.1016/s1053-8100(02)00003-x. View

Unsworth N, Schrock J, Engle R . Working memory capacity and the antisaccade task: individual differences in voluntary saccade control. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2004; 30(6):1302-21. DOI: 10.1037/0278-7393.30.6.1302. View

Snodgrass J, Corwin J . Pragmatics of measuring recognition memory: applications to dementia and amnesia. J Exp Psychol Gen. 1988; 117(1):34-50. DOI: 10.1037//0096-3445.117.1.34. View

Unsworth N, Heitz R, Schrock J, Engle R . An automated version of the operation span task. Behav Res Methods. 2006; 37(3):498-505. DOI: 10.3758/bf03192720. View

10.

Kane M, Engle R . Working-memory capacity and the control of attention: the contributions of goal neglect, response competition, and task set to Stroop interference. J Exp Psychol Gen. 2003; 132(1):47-70. DOI: 10.1037/0096-3445.132.1.47. View

11.

Conway A, Kane M, Bunting M, Hambrick D, Wilhelm O, Engle R . Working memory span tasks: A methodological review and user's guide. Psychon Bull Rev. 2006; 12(5):769-86. DOI: 10.3758/bf03196772. View

12.

Smallwood J, Riby L, Heim D, Davies J . Encoding during the attentional lapse: accuracy of encoding during the semantic sustained attention to response task. Conscious Cogn. 2005; 15(1):218-31. DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2005.03.003. View

13.

Robertson I, Manly T, Andrade J, Baddeley B, Yiend J . 'Oops!': performance correlates of everyday attentional failures in traumatic brain injured and normal subjects. Neuropsychologia. 1997; 35(6):747-58. DOI: 10.1016/s0028-3932(97)00015-8. View

14.

Smallwood J, McSpadden M, Schooler J . The lights are on but no one's home: meta-awareness and the decoupling of attention when the mind wanders. Psychon Bull Rev. 2007; 14(3):527-33. DOI: 10.3758/bf03194102. View

15.

Mason M, Norton M, Van Horn J, Wegner D, Grafton S, Neil Macrae C . Wandering minds: the default network and stimulus-independent thought. Science. 2007; 315(5810):393-5. PMC: 1821121. DOI: 10.1126/science.1131295. View

16.

Broadbent D, Cooper P, Fitzgerald P, Parkes K . The Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) and its correlates. Br J Clin Psychol. 1982; 21(1):1-16. DOI: 10.1111/j.2044-8260.1982.tb01421.x. View

17.

Smallwood J, Baracaia S, Lowe M, Obonsawin M . Task unrelated thought whilst encoding information. Conscious Cogn. 2003; 12(3):452-84. DOI: 10.1016/s1053-8100(03)00018-7. View

18.

Smallwood J, Schooler J . The restless mind. Psychol Bull. 2006; 132(6):946-958. DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.132.6.946. View

19.

Smallwood J, McSpadden M, Luus B, Schooler J . Segmenting the stream of consciousness: the psychological correlates of temporal structures in the time series data of a continuous performance task. Brain Cogn. 2007; 66(1):50-6. DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2007.05.004. View

20.

Kane M, Bleckley M, Conway A, Engle R . A controlled-attention view of working-memory capacity. J Exp Psychol Gen. 2001; 130(2):169-83. DOI: 10.1037//0096-3445.130.2.169. View