Inferring mind wandering from perceptual decision making.
People need to sustain focused attention to achieve goals. Yet, attention often lapses, as minds wander towards task-unrelated thoughts. The conventional way to study such shifts in attention is through thought probes that explicitly ask if thoughts are task-related. However, probes are rare and int...
| Publicado en: | Communications Psychology Vol. 4; no. 1; pp. 1 - 15 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | equations & formulas pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Springer Nature
2/20/2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=192618495&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 192618495 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 27319121 N51Q jtl: Communications Psychology issn: 27319121 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2/20/2026 vid: 4 iid: 1 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature place: New York, New York artinfo: ui: 192618495 192618495 192618495 10.1038/s44271-026-00424-9 192618495 ppf: 1 ppct: 14 formats: tig: atl: Inferring mind wandering from perceptual decision making. aug: au: Zhang, Cathy Kool, Wouter affil: https://ror.org/01yc7t268 Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA sug: subj: Wandering Behavior Thinking Decision Making Perception Task Performance and Analysis Hidden Markov Models Attention Human Reaction Time Self Report Conceptual Framework Male Female Descriptive Statistics Data Analysis Software Adolescence Young Adult Cognition Funding Source Adolescent: 13-18 years Male Female ab: People need to sustain focused attention to achieve goals. Yet, attention often lapses, as minds wander towards task-unrelated thoughts. The conventional way to study such shifts in attention is through thought probes that explicitly ask if thoughts are task-related. However, probes are rare and interrupt behavior. Other methods to measure mind wandering assume a 50/50 split in time spent on-task vs off-task. We address these issues with a framework to infer mind wandering (MW) using computational modeling. We use a random dot motion task with varying evidence, but with a strong bias inducing a repetitive response requirement. Occasional thought probes were used for validation. When participants (N = 93) reported being off-task, accuracy was higher and reaction time (RT) was lower, suggesting less stimulus processing and more reliance on bias. To classify internal states for individual trials from performance, we fit a Hidden Markov Model with Generalized Linear Models (GLM-HMM) for each state to responses. A two-state GLM-HMM predicted lower RTs on off-task trials, revealed an increase in mind wandering across the task, and aligned with self-reported focus. This shows that temporal variation in attentional states can be measured on a trial-to-trial basis without thought probes, paving the way for future MW research. Mind wandering is typically measured using rare, disruptive thought probes. This study shows that trial-by-trial fluctuations in attentional states can be inferred from behavior alone using a biased perceptual task and computational modeling. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: equations & formulas pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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