Department of psychology, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Psychology and Behavior Research Center, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Brain Behav. 2023 Sep;13(9):e3175. doi: 10.1002/brb3.3175. Epub 2023 Jul 20.
Mind-wandering (MW) is defined as a shift of attention from external tasks toward internal thoughts and is popularly measured by the sustained attention to response task (SART). SART is able to capture MW, but cannot track the dynamics of mind-wandering over time well. We thus attempted to modify the sustained attention to response task paradigm (mSART) to capture the participant's mind-wandering state over time and quantify the degree of mind-wandering using the current behavioral data.
179 participants from Wenzhou Medical University were recruited to participate in this experiment. The main changes to the experiment included (1) manipulating different no-go stimuli frequencies to control the difficulty of the task and setting 9 modes; (2) extending the experiment time to 30 min; (3) allowing participants to correct errors by pressing the b key. Error rate, Mean RTs, RT CV, and d' were used to reflect MW. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed.
ANOVA was used to explore Mean RTs, RT CV and d' for participants with different levels of mind-wandering and significant differences were found (Mean RTs:Welch's F (2, 8606.04) = 579.00, p < .001, η = 0.03; RT CV:Welch's F (2, 198.11) = 69.93, p < .001, η = 0.18; d':F (2, 176) = 19.88, p < .001, η = 0.18). The 30-min experiment was divided into six time windows, and mind-wandering deepens over time.
The mSART paradigm could quantify the extent of MW based on changes in the frequency at which the no-go stimuli were presented and also revealed that the recommended length of the experiment was about 20 min.
思维漫游（MW）被定义为注意力从外部任务转移到内部思维，通常通过持续注意反应任务（SART）来测量。SART 能够捕捉到 MW，但不能很好地跟踪随时间推移的思维漫游动态。因此，我们尝试修改持续注意反应任务范式（mSART），以随时间捕获参与者的思维漫游状态，并使用当前行为数据量化思维漫游的程度。
从温州医科大学招募了 179 名参与者参加这项实验。实验的主要变化包括：（1）操纵不同的禁止刺激频率来控制任务的难度，并设置 9 种模式；（2）将实验时间延长至 30 分钟；（3）允许参与者通过按下 b 键来纠正错误。错误率、平均反应时（Mean RTs）、反应时变异系数（RT CV）和 d' 用于反映 MW。采用协方差分析（ANCOVA）进行分析。
方差分析用于探索不同思维漫游水平的参与者的 Mean RTs、RT CV 和 d'，发现有显著差异（Mean RTs：Welch 的 F（2，8606.04）= 579.00，p<0.001，η²=0.03；RT CV：Welch 的 F（2，198.11）= 69.93，p<0.001，η²=0.18；d'：F（2，176）= 19.88，p<0.001，η²=0.18）。30 分钟的实验分为六个时间窗口，随着时间的推移，思维漫游逐渐加深。
mSART 范式可以根据禁止刺激出现的频率变化来量化 MW 的程度，同时还揭示了实验的推荐时长约为 20 分钟。
