School of Humanities and Science, Kyushu Campus, Tokai University, Higashi-Ku, Toroku 9-1-1, Kumamoto, 862-8652, Japan.
Sci Rep. 2022 Apr 7;12(1):5839. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-09824-3.
Mind wandering (MW) is commonly observable in daily life. Early studies established an association between motivation and MW at the trait level using a questionnaire survey. Considering that the mechanism of state-level association between them is known, this study was conducted to replicate the trait-level association and determine its possible mechanisms. Two independent samples were analysed using several questionnaires, which included motivation and MW. General one- and multi-dimensional scales were administered for both variables. Besides the successful replication of the significant association between motivation and MW at the trait level, we found that people with low levels of executive function experience high rates of spontaneous MW. This finding indicates that the underlying mechanism of trait-level association is the executive failure hypothesis, which postulates that a failure of executive control during task-related objectives evokes MW. Further, the motivation-MW relationship exhibits a different psychological basis at the state and trait levels.
走神（mind wandering，MW）在日常生活中很常见。早期研究使用问卷调查在特质水平上确立了动机与 MW 之间的联系。考虑到它们之间的状态水平关联机制已被了解，本研究旨在复制特质水平关联，并确定其可能的机制。使用包括动机和 MW 的几种问卷对两个独立的样本进行了分析。针对这两个变量，我们采用了通用的一维和多维量表。除了成功复制特质水平上动机和 MW 之间的显著关联外，我们还发现执行功能水平较低的人会经历更高比例的自发 MW。这一发现表明，特质水平关联的潜在机制是执行失败假说，该假说认为，在与任务相关的目标过程中执行控制的失败会引发 MW。此外，动机-MW 关系在状态和特质水平上表现出不同的心理基础。
