Exploring the Basic Mechanisms Underlying Sustained Attention, Attention Lapses and Mind Wandering

注意力涣散和不必要的走神会导致各种各样的表现错误，包括幽默和尴尬的弱点，在课堂和工作中表现不佳，甚至是灾难性的机动车事故。然而，注意力缺失和走神的基本认知机制仍然知之甚少。本研究的主要目的是探讨防止和/或终止注意失误的外部任务相关因素以及与持续注意能力相关的内部个体特征。本研究分为三个相互关联的研究方向，每个方向都是我与实验室的研究生和博士后研究人员合作开发的。由于注意力丧失和走神的发生是在个人没有意识到的情况下发生的，第一个方向的研究将检查是什么因素让个人意识到他们的注意力已经丧失，他们的思想已经偏离了任务。其中一组研究将检查任务中自然发生的断点，如文本中的段落中断或电影和讲座中的过渡点，是否可以触发走神的终止。另一组研究将评估个人相关的单词（例如，一个人自己的名字），充满情感的刺激（如禁忌词），以及在其他无聊的任务中的关键事件，这些都是众所周知的吸引注意力的因素，也会导致人们意识到他们的思想已经走神。这项工作将有助于建立更完整的心智游荡模型，并进一步完善心智游荡的终止机制，对预防和终止日常生活中的注意力缺失具有重要的现实意义。第二个研究方向是揭示与任务相关的因素，这些因素会降低持续注意力衰减，这是持续注意力表现随时间下降的一般观察。这些研究是基于一个相对较新的假设，即SAD的发生是因为随着时间的推移，注意力资源与主要的警惕任务脱钩，而是应用于内部思想（走神假设）。我们计划通过（反直觉地）增加警惕任务的外部需求来减少SAD，这应该会导致更少的走神和更持久的注意力与警惕刺激的耦合。我们将通过以下方式增加警觉任务的心理负荷：（1）增加将注意力与警觉刺激相结合的次级任务;（2）增加不常见的警觉目标的异质性;（3）减少目标预知。重要的是，增加脑力工作量会降低SAD，这与注意力理论的一个广泛观点直接矛盾，即增加任务的注意力需求应该对表现产生负面影响。最后一项研究将解决与持续注意力表现相关的个人特质特征。具体来说，我们将探讨习惯于参与媒体多任务处理的个体（MMT，例如，工作时听音乐）的内部控制机制萎缩，这将导致他们在持续注意力任务中表现更差。这些研究将测量MMT的个体差异，并将其与以下方面的个体差异联系起来：（1）瞬时注意力丧失，（2）SAD的程度，以及（3）MMT消耗注意力资源的程度。这条工作线将指出习惯性MMT作为持续注意能力的重要个体差异调节剂，这将需要纳入持续注意的认知模型。

Attention lapses and unwanted moments of mind wandering can lead to a wide range of performance errors including humorous and embarrassing foibles, poor performance in the classroom and at work, and even catastrophic motor vehicle accidents. Yet, the basic cognitive mechanisms underlying attention lapses and mind wandering remain poorly understood. The primary aim of the proposed research program is to examine the external task-related factors that prevent and/or terminate attention lapses and the internal individual traits associated with sustained-attention ability. The research program is divided into three interrelated lines of inquiry each generated and developed in collaboration with the graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in my laboratory.Since attention lapses and bouts of mind wandering are known to occur without an individual’s awareness, the first line of inquiry will examine what factors allow individuals to realize that their attention has lapsed and their mind has wandered off task. One set of studies will examine whether naturally occurring breakpoints in tasks, such as paragraph breaks in text or transition points in movies and lectures, can trigger the termination of mind wandering. Another set of studies will evaluate whether personally relevant words (e.g., one’s own name), emotionally charged stimuli (such as taboo words), and critical events in otherwise boring tasks, which are known to capture attention, will also lead people to realize their minds have wandered. This work will lead to the formulation of more complete models of mind wandering with more developed mechanisms for the termination of mind wandering episodes, and will have obvious practical implications for preventing and terminating attention lapses in everyday life.A second line of research will uncover the types of task-related factors that reduce the sustained attention decrement (SAD), which is the general observation that sustained attention performance declines over time. The studies are based on the relatively new hypothesis that the SAD occurs because over time attentional resources become decoupled from the primary vigilance task and are instead applied to internal thoughts (the mind wandering hypothesis). We plan to reduce the SAD by (counter-intuitively) increasing the external demands of a vigilance task, which should lead to less mind wandering and a more durable coupling of attention to vigilance stimuli. We will increase mental workload of the vigilance task by (1) adding a secondary task that couples attention to the vigilance stimuli, (2) increasing the heterogeneity of the infrequent vigilance targets, and (3) reducing target foreknowledge. Critically, showing that increasing mental workload decreases the SAD would directly contradict a widely held view of attention theories, namely, that increasing attentional demands of a task ought to have, if anything, negative consequences on performance.A final line of research will address the sorts of trait characteristics of individuals that relate to sustained attention performance. Specifically, we will explore whether individuals who are habitually involved in media multi-tasking (MMT e.g., listening to music while working) have atrophied internal control mechanisms that will lead them to perform more poorly on sustained attention tasks. The studies will measure individual differences in MMT and relate them to individual differences in (1) momentary attention lapses, (2) the magnitude of the SAD, and (3) the extent to which MMT depletes attentional resources. This line of work will point to habitual MMT as an important individual difference moderator of sustained attention ability, which will need to be incorporated in cognitive models of sustained attention.