Mental Wandering Characteristics Of Media Multitaskers In Different Task Backgrounds

The progress of modern science and technology makes a variety of media devices emerge at the historic moment,which has a profound impact on the way people use media.media multitasking(MM)refers to the multitasking of multiple media tasks or the combination of media and non-media tasks on an individual at any given time.It has become a common way of using media today.Mind-wandering(MW),commonly known as "Mind wandering",refers to the phenomenon that when an individual engages in a certain task in a waking state,his subjective consciousness turns to processing other tasks.Although previous studies have shown a significant positive correlation between media multitasking behavior and mind wandering,the mind wandering characteristics of media multitaskers at different levels under different task backgrounds remain to be explored.Based on the above,this study attempted to combine questionnaire and experimental methods to explore the mental wandering characteristics of heavy/moderate/light media multitaskers under different nature and difficulty tasks.This paper includes three studies:In study 1,557 college students were selected as subjects by questionnaire method through convenient sampling to explore the correlation between media multitasking level and mind wandering under the background of task-free state,converging task,avoidant task and background task.The results showed that the level of media multitasking was significantly positively correlated with the mental wandering in the non-task state,the convergent task,the avoidant task and the background task.In the second study,experimental methods were used to explore the mental wandering characteristics of heavy/medium/light media multitaskers with different levels of difficulty under n-back tasks.A two-factor mixed experimental design of3(MMI: heavy/medium/light)×4(task difficulty: 0/1/2/3-back)was adopted.Media multitasking level was an inter-subject factor,task difficulty was an intra-subject factor,and the dependent variable was the correct response rate and response time to the target stimulus as well as the reported number of mental wandering occurrences.The results showed that:(1)In terms of accuracy and reaction time,the main effect margin of the groups was significant.The accuracy of light media multitaskers was higher than that of heavy media multitaskers,but the accuracy of reaction time was opposite.The main effect of task difficulty was significant,and the accuracy decreased with the increase of task difficulty.The interaction was not significant;(2)For the incidence of subjective reported mind wandering,the main effect of task difficulty was significant,and the incidence of subjective reported mind wandering decreased with the increase of task difficulty.The main effect of group was not significant,and the interaction effect was not significant.In study 3,experimental methods were also adopted to test the mental wandering characteristics of media multitasers at different levels of heavy/medium/light in sustained attention response task(SART)of different difficulties.A two-factor mixed experimental design of 3(MMI: heavy/medium/light)×3(task difficulty:low/medium/high)was adopted.The media multitasking level was the inter-subject factor,the task difficulty was the intra-subject factor,and the dependent variable was the error rate of response to the target stimulus,the reaction time and the frequency of mental wandering.The results showed that:(1)the main effect of task difficulty was significant for the accuracy and reaction time.With the increase of task difficulty,the accuracy decreased successively and the reaction time increased.The interaction between correct rate group and task difficulty was significant.In the low difficulty task,the correct rate of light media multitaskers was significantly higher.(3)In terms of the incidence of subjective reported mind wandering,the main effect of the group was significant,and the incidence of subjective reported mind wandering was significantly minimum in mild media multitaskers.The main effect of task difficulty was significant,and the interaction between group and task difficulty was significant.In low and medium difficulty tasks,the incidence of subjective mind wandering reported by mild media multitaskers was significantly minimum.To sum up,the following conclusions can be drawn: the level of media multitasking is significantly positively correlated with the mental wandering under task-free state,converging task,avoidant task and background task;The lower the task difficulty,the greater the probability of mind wandering;Heavy media multitaskers were more likely to experience mind wandering during simple tasks.The above results reveal the mind wandering characteristics of heavy/medium/light media multitaskers under different nature and difficulty of tasks,provide new experimental evidence for further revealing the complex relationship between media multitasking behavior and mind wandering,and also provide reference for how to actively guide teenagers to use media rationally.