A Resource-Control Account of Sustained Attention: Evidence From Mind-Wandering and Vigilance Paradigms

被引:287
作者
Thomson, David R. [1 ]
Besner, Derek [1 ]
Smilek, Daniel [1 ]
机构
[1] Univ Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
基金
加拿大自然科学与工程研究理事会;
关键词
vigilance; mind wandering; sustained attention; executive control; attentional resources; WORKING-MEMORY CAPACITY; EXECUTIVE-CONTROL; INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES; TARGET DETECTION; DEFAULT NETWORK; META-AWARENESS; EGO DEPLETION; PERFORMANCE; BOREDOM; THOUGHT;
D O I
10.1177/1745691614556681
中图分类号
B84 [心理学];
学科分类号
04 ; 0402 ;
摘要
Staying attentive is challenging enough when carrying out everyday tasks, such as reading or sitting through a lecture, and failures to do so can be frustrating and inconvenient. However, such lapses may even be life threatening, for example, if a pilot fails to monitor an oil-pressure gauge or if a long-haul truck driver fails to notice a car in his or her blind spot. Here, we explore two explanations of sustained-attention lapses. By one account, task monotony leads to an increasing preoccupation with internal thought (i.e., mind wandering). By another, task demands result in the depletion of information-processing resources that are needed to perform the task. A review of the sustained-attention literature suggests that neither theory, on its own, adequately explains the full range of findings. We propose a novel framework to explain why attention lapses as a function of time-on-task by combining aspects of two different theories of mind wandering: attentional resource (Smallwood & Schooler, 2006) and control failure (McVay & Kane, 2010). We then use our resource-control theory to explain performance decrements in sustained-attention tasks. We end by making some explicit predictions regarding mind wandering in general and sustained-attention performance in particular.
引用
收藏
页码:82 / 96
页数:15
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