University of Zurich, Switzerland.
University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Cognition. 2021 Jan;206:104482. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104482. Epub 2020 Oct 28.
Human attention is subject to fluctuations. Mind-wandering (MW) - attending to thoughts unrelated to the current task demands - is considered a ubiquitous experience. According to the Control Failure x Concerns view (McVay & Kane, 2010), MW is curbed by executive control, and task-irrelevant thoughts enter consciousness due to attentional control lapses. The generation of off-task thoughts is assumed to increase with higher number of personal concerns. Challenging this view, older adults report less MW than younger adults. Here, we addressed the hypothesis that older adults report less MW due to a lower ability to notice attention lapses and to appraise their current on-task focus. In an age-comparative study (N = 40 younger and N = 44 older adults) using a battery of three tasks spanning working memory, reading comprehension, and sustained attention, we assessed the correlation between the degree of self-reported on-task focus and task performance on a trial-by-trial basis. Younger and older adults' degree of on-task attention measured through thought probes was correlated equally strongly with performance across trials in all tasks, indicating preserved ability to monitor attentional fluctuations in healthy aging. Self-reported current concerns' number and importance did not differ across age, and they did not predict self-reported attention across tasks. Our study shows that lower rates of MW in aging do not reflect lower validity of older adults' attentional appraisal or lower levels of current concerns.
人类的注意力是会波动的。心不在焉（MW）——即关注与当前任务需求无关的想法——被认为是一种普遍的体验。根据控制失败 x 关注观点（McVay & Kane，2010），MW 受到执行控制的抑制，而与任务无关的想法进入意识是由于注意力控制失误。人们认为，与任务无关的想法的产生会随着个人关注问题的数量增加而增加。挑战这一观点的是，老年人报告的 MW 比年轻人少。在这里，我们假设老年人报告的 MW 较少是因为他们注意到注意力不集中的能力较低，并且对当前任务的关注程度的评估能力较低。在一项年龄比较研究（N=40 名年轻参与者和 N=44 名年长参与者）中，我们使用了三个任务的电池，涵盖工作记忆、阅读理解和持续注意力，我们评估了自我报告的任务上的注意力程度与任务表现之间的相关性，逐次进行试验。通过思维探针测量的年轻和年长参与者的任务上注意力程度与所有任务中的试验表现密切相关，这表明在健康衰老中，监测注意力波动的能力得到了保留。自我报告的当前关注问题的数量和重要性在年龄之间没有差异，并且它们也不能预测自我报告的跨任务注意力。我们的研究表明，衰老过程中 MW 发生率较低并不反映老年人注意力评估的有效性较低或当前关注问题的水平较低。
