The Impact of Mindwandering on Task Performance
Jessica Stuart
Department of Psychology
Abstract
Mind wandering often has detrimental effects on task performance. We hypothesized that mind wandering would negatively impact multitasking performance, especially in more cognitively demanding environments. To test this hypothesis, two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, subjects performed magnitude or parity tasks on single digits presented in single and multitask blocks. In Experiment 2, subjects performed the same tasks in cued and voluntary task switching procedures. During the course of task performance, subjects were probed to determine whether they were mind wandering. Subjects reported mind wandering on approximately a quarter of all probes. When subjects reported mind wandering, task performance slowed, particularly on more demanding task switching trials. In addition, task-switching probability decreased in the voluntary task switching procedure. Together these results suggest that when subjects were mind wandering, they were less effective at multitasking.
