A Study On The Relationship Between Mind Wandering And Attentional Control

Attention control refers to the ability to control attention,including attention concentration and attention transfer.Attention transfer is the process of separating attention from one goal,transferring it to another new goal,and then participating in the new attention goal.Attention concentration refers to the ability to intentionally focus attention on desired stimuli and avoid shifting attention to irrelevant or distracting stimuli.Mind wandering(MW)refers to a phenomenon that attention shifts from current tasks or external events to internal spontaneous thoughts and emotion.Mind wandering is very common in daily life,which is often associated with negative influences.For a long time,researchers regard Mind Wandering and attention as two completely different states,and the research results of the relationship between attention control ability and Mind Wandering have been controversial.We try to determine the negative influence of Mind Wandering on attention control by studying the relationship between attention control ability and Mind Wandering.In the first study,270 college students were selected and measured with Mind Wandering Frequency Scale,Deliberate and Spontaneous Mind Wandering Scale and Attention Control Scale,and the relationship between self-reported attention control ability and Mind Wandering was preliminarily discussed.The results showed that Mind Wandering frequency and Spontaneous Mind Wandering were negatively correlated with attention control ability,and they were negatively correlated with attention concentration dimension in attention control scale,but had nothing to do with attention transfer dimension However,Deliberate Mind Wandering has nothing to do with attention control ability.In the second study,70 college students were selected as subjects,using Sustained Attention to Response Task,(SART)and Attentional Network Task,(ANT),combined with Mind Wandering Frequency Scale and Attention Control Scale.This study explores the relationship between the behavioral measures of Mind Wandering in SART,such as Reaction Time Variability?Omissions?Anticipation errors ? number of NO-GO errors,and the three sub-networks of ANT's attention assessment,such as alert network,directional network and control network.The results show that the scores of the subjects in the Mind Wandering Frequency Scale are significantly related to the Mind Wandering captured by the probe in the SART task,and the behavior data in the SART task can be used as an indirect measurement index of Mind Wandering;There is no significant correlation between the behavioral indicators of Mind Wandering in SART task and Attention Alert Network and Directional Network.Anticipation errors and reaction time variability are positively correlated with Attention Control Network.According to the behavioral indicators of Mind Wandering,the subjects were divided into high and low groups.The results showed that there was no difference in the efficiency of attention orientation and attention vigilance between the two groups,but there was a significant difference in the efficiency of Attention Control Network.Through the analysis of the research results,the following conclusions are drawn:Mind Wandering is mainly related to the individual's attention control ability,and the individual with strong control ability has low Mind Wandering frequency;Individuals with weak control ability have high frequency of Mind Wandering,which is manifested in the concentration ability of attention control.Mind Wandering has a negative impact on the efficiency of attention control in attention network,which leads to the decline of attention control ability and the damage of conflict resolution ability.This result verifies the perception decoupling theory of Mind Wandering,that is,Mind Wandering needs to occupy certain attention resources.