Department of Psychology, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK.
Department of Psychology, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK.
Conscious Cogn. 2023 Feb;108:103463. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2022.103463. Epub 2023 Jan 12.
Mind wandering, also known as task-unrelated thought, refers to the drift of attention from a focal task or train of thought. Because self-caught measures of mind wandering require participants to spontaneously indicate when they notice their attention drift, self-caught methodologies provide a way to measure mind wandering with meta-awareness. Given the proposed role of meta-awareness in mental health and psychological interventions, an overview of existing self-caught methodologies would help clinicians and researchers make informed decisions when choosing or adapting a mind wandering or meta-awareness measure. This systematic review included 39 studies after 790 studies were assessed for eligibility. All studies operationalised mind wandering as instances of attention drift from a primary task. Three types of primary task were identified: (1) tasks adapted from computerised continuous performance tests (CPT) of sustained attention, (2) tasks involving focusing on the breath or a stream of aural beats, akin to in-vivo mindfulness meditation, (3) tasks involving an everyday life activity such as reading. Although data on mind wandering without meta-awareness (e.g., measured with probe-caught measures) was also obtained in many studies, such data was not always used in conjunction with self-caught mind wandering data to determine level of mind wandering meta-awareness. Few studies reported both reliability and validity of the measures used. This review shows that considerable methodological heterogeneity exists in the literature. Methodological variants of self-caught mind wandering methodologies are documented and examined, and suggestions for future research and clinical work are suggested.
思维漫游，也被称为与任务无关的思维，是指注意力从一个焦点任务或思维流中漂移。由于自我捕捉的思维漫游测量需要参与者自发地表明他们何时注意到自己的注意力漂移，因此自我捕捉方法提供了一种带有元意识的思维漫游测量方法。鉴于元意识在心理健康和心理干预中的作用，对现有的自我捕捉方法的概述将有助于临床医生和研究人员在选择或改编思维漫游或元意识测量时做出明智的决策。这项系统综述包括 39 项研究，在对 790 项研究进行资格评估后。所有的研究都将注意力从主要任务上的漂移操作化为思维漫游。确定了三种主要任务类型：(1) 从计算机化的持续性注意力 CPT 任务中改编的任务，(2) 涉及专注于呼吸或听觉节拍流的任务，类似于体内正念冥想，(3) 涉及阅读等日常生活活动的任务。尽管许多研究也获得了没有元意识的思维漫游的数据(例如，通过探针捕捉测量)，但这些数据并不总是与自我捕捉的思维漫游数据一起用于确定思维漫游元意识的水平。很少有研究报告了所使用的测量方法的可靠性和有效性。本综述表明，文献中存在相当大的方法学异质性。自我捕捉思维漫游方法的方法学变体被记录和检查，并提出了未来研究和临床工作的建议。
