Understanding and modifying mind wandering

注意力很难长时间保持，甚至连几分钟都很难保持。因此，大多数人发现他们的思想经常从他们应该做的事情转移到其他紧迫的事情上。虽然我们知道保持注意力很困难，但我们还不完全明白为什么会这样，或者我们能做些什么。因此，本研究的主要目标是更好地理解支持注意力维持的基本机制。然而，除了对这些基本机制的简单识别和理解之外，拟议的研究也有可能减少由于注意力不集中而发生的灾难性错误的频率，比如车祸和火车相撞。该研究项目分为三个相关阶段，旨在首先确定注意力（一种精神状态）与可观察的身体行为之间联系的重要特征。后来，这些特征提供了更好的识别和操纵注意力。

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.