Color Highlighting Can Effectively Reduce Mind Wandering:Evidence From ERP

Mind Wandering is a common phenomenon in our lives,studies have shown that mind wandering occupies 30%to 40%of the waking hours while we are awake.Attention drift away from the primary task in the external environmental stimulus toward the self generated thoughts and feelings,this psychological process is called mind wandering.In this study,19 college students were enrolled,using the SART paradigm commonly used in the study of mind-wandering,and combined with the probe sampling method.Using ERP technology to solve the problem of no-go error in the SART in previous studies,the problem of speed-accuracy trade-off balance failure or mind wandering,as well as the brain electrical changes that highlight stimulus and neutral stimulus.Under the condition of the highlighted condition,the color of the no-go stimulus and the go stimulus was different,rather than the color of the target stimulus under the condition of the highlighted condition and the non-target stimulus.The results found that in highlighted condition,the go stimulate reaction time significantly faster than that under the condition of not highlight the go stimulate,it shows that the no-go error in the individual is not the strategic fai lure of the trade-off of speed-accuracy,but that the individual did mind wandering.Under the highlighted condition,the no-go error rate is significantly lower than that of the non-salient condition,it suggest that mind wandering in SART can be significantly reduced by the color highlighting.EEG analysis shows that compared with on task,when individual is mind wandering.P300 amplitude decreased significantly and suggest that mind wandering reduced attention to external stimuli in the allocation of resources,support perceptual decoupling hypothesis.