Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder.
J Exp Psychol Gen. 2017 Nov;146(11):1649-1674. doi: 10.1037/xge0000362.
A combined experimental-correlational study with a diverse sample (N = 182) from 2 research sites tested a set of 5 a priori hypotheses about mind wandering and learning, using a realistic video lecture on introductory statistics. Specifically, the study examined whether students' vulnerability to mind wandering during the lecture would predict learning from, and situational interest in, the video and also whether longhand note-taking would help reduce mind wandering, at least for some students. One half of the participants took notes during the video, and all were subsequently tested on lecture content without notes. Regression and mediation analyses indicated that (a) several individual-differences variables (e.g., pretest score, prior math interest, classroom media multitasking habits) uniquely predicted in-lecture mind wandering frequency; (b) although the note-taking manipulation did not reduce mind wandering at the group level, note-taking still reduced mind wandering for some individuals (i.e., those with lower prior knowledge and those who took notes of high quality and quantity); (c) mind wandering uniquely predicted both learning (posttest) and situational interest outcomes above and beyond all other individual-differences variables; (d) moreover, mind wandering significantly mediated the effects of several individual differences; and, finally, (e) not all types of mind wandering were problematic-in fact, off-task reflections about lecture-related topics positively predicted learning. These results, which were generally robust across the 2 sites, suggest that educationally focused cognitive research may benefit from considering attentional processes during learning as well as cognitive and noncognitive individual differences that affect attention and learning. (PsycINFO Database Record
一项采用来自两个研究地点的多样化样本（N=182）的结合实验和相关研究的研究检验了关于走神和学习的五个事先假设，使用了一个关于介绍统计学的现实视频讲座。具体来说，该研究考察了学生在讲座中走神的脆弱性是否会预测他们从视频中学习和对视频的情境兴趣，以及手写笔记是否有助于减少走神，至少对一些学生如此。一半的参与者在观看视频时做笔记，所有参与者随后在没有笔记的情况下接受讲座内容的测试。回归和中介分析表明：（a）几个个体差异变量（例如，前测分数、先前的数学兴趣、课堂媒体多任务处理习惯）可以独特地预测课堂上的走神频率；（b）尽管记笔记的操作在群体水平上并没有减少走神，但对于一些个体来说，记笔记仍然减少了走神（即那些先前知识水平较低、笔记质量和数量较高的个体）；（c）走神在所有其他个体差异变量之外，独特地预测了学习（后测）和情境兴趣的结果；（d）此外，走神显著中介了几个个体差异的影响；最后，（e）并非所有类型的走神都是有问题的——事实上，与讲座相关的主题的任务外反思积极地预测了学习。这些结果在两个地点都具有稳健性，表明注重教育的认知研究可能受益于考虑学习期间的注意力过程，以及影响注意力和学习的认知和非认知个体差异。
