The Individual Differences In Mind Wandering And Attentional Blink: A Correlation Study

Attentional Blink (AB) is a phenomenon in which the subjects'correct report rate of the 2nd target (T2) is decreased significantly when two targets (T1 and T2) occur within a very short period of time (200 to 500 milliseconds) among a stream of Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP). It's generally considered that the AB reflects the limit capacity of cognitive processing.Recent studies revealed individual differences in the AB magnitude. One possible interpretation is that the subjects with lower AB magnitude have higher working memory capacity than those with higher AB magnitude. Some researchers suggested that the subjects with higher AB invest more attention resources onto the distractors in the RSVP stream than those with lower AB. This is consistent with a hypothesis that the AB is due to the overinvestment of resources onto the RSVP stream. This overinvestment hypothesis was supported by a study in which the performance in AB task is benefit from the concurrent task-irrelevant mental activity (such as free-associating and listening music). The task-irrelevant mental activity is similar to the mind wandering (MW):both are irrelevant to the current task, and consume a certain amount of cognitive resources. MW is the experience of thoughts not remaining on the environment or the current task, which also refers to as task-unrelated thought (TUT). The MW is usually investigated with three paradigms:Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART), thought probe and questionnaires. By using these paradigms, the current study was designed to test whether the AB magnitude is correlated to the frequency of MW. If one with higher WM frequency performs better in the AB task, then the overinvestment theory of the AB would be extended and linked to the MW; On the contrary, executive-control theory of mind wandering will inproved.Besides the most classic scale "Imaginal Processes Inventory" in the "Daydream Frequency Scale", a new questionnaire developed by Song was included in the current study." MW frequency scale in different task," involves two factors. We assume factors B and AB tasks are similar; factor C and SART are similar.The WM is divided into two categories, one is Turning out, another is Zoning out. We insert in the task of the AB and SART to distinguish conscious and unconscious mind wandering, exploring the stability of individual difference of WM among different kind of tasks, and to further verify the validity scales.Under the MW frequency questionnaire and two behavioral experiments, the present results showed that:(1) easier MW groups and easier AB. (2) people in the SART task are more easier to MW than the AB task. And the frequency of the unconscious MW in SART task was significantly higher than AB task. (3) people who took high score of factor B, perform poorly in the SART task, and in the AB task.The study reveals that:(1) factors B and AB tasks are similar; factor C and SART are similar. (2) easier MW groups and easier AB. inproved executive-control theory of mind wandering, MW indeed affect the results of AB-(3) who is easier MW in AB task also took high scores in factor B, have good performance in (he AB task, and in the SART task.