Understanding and modifying mind wandering

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Attention is difficult to sustain for extended periods of time, and often difficult to sustain for even a few minutes. As a result most people find their thoughts regularly drift away from what they are supposed to be doing to other pressing concerns. While we know maintaining attention is difficult, we do not yet fully understand why this is the case, or what we can do about it. The primary goal for the proposed research is therefore to better understand the basic mechanisms supporting the maintenance of attention. Beyond simple identification and understanding of these basic mechanisms, however, the proposed research also holds the potential to reduce the frequency of catastrophic mistakes that occur as a result of inattention – such as car accidents and train crashes. This research program is divided into three related phases, designed to first identify important characteristics of the link between attention (a mental state) and physical, observable, behaviour. Later, these characteristics afford improved identification and manipulation of attention.