Abstract
<p>Mind wandering – a spontaneous shift in attention away from a task – has been consistentlyassociated with impaired cognitive task performance, often attributed to disruptions inexecutive functioning. In this study, we conducted three experiments to replicate and extendprevious work (Kam &amp; Handy, 2014) by examining how mind wandering interacts with threecore executive functions: Inhibition (Experiment 1: Sustained Attention to Response Task, n= 54), updating (Experiment 2: Random n-back Task, n = 52) and shifting (Experiment 3:Number-Letter Task, n = 54). If mind wandering is closely related to executive functioning, itwas expected that mind wandering would impair performance on trials requiring thesefunctions, reflected in lower accuracy and increased reaction time variability. Our findingsdid not confirm this: Mind wandering was associated with a general negative effect onperformance, rather than specifically impairing executive functioning. Accuracy was loweron executive than non-executive trials in the inhibition and shifting tasks, but these effectswere not attenuated by mind wandering. In the updating task, where executive and non-executive trials were matched in difficulty, mind wandering reduced accuracy in bothexecutive and non-executive trials. Variability in reaction time was found to be higher duringmind wandering in the inhibition and updating tasks, with evidence against such an effect inthe shifting task. These findings suggest that the observed performance decrements may bemore closely tied to task demands than to executive functions per se.</p>