A combined experimental-correlational approach to the construct validity of performance-based and self-report-based measures of sustained attention

Further unpacking age-related differences in mind wandering: The roles of emotional valence and meta-awareness

Age-related differences in mind wandering are robust. However, previous work examining such differences rarely considered the specific content of participants' mind wandering. We sought to replicate prior work showing that older adults' reduced frequency of mind wandering is specific to negative and neutral thoughts, and extend this work by examining the role of perceived stress in this pattern. We also tested if older and younger adults differed in the meta-awareness of their emotionally valenced mind wandering. Older and younger adults completed a sustained attention task with periodic thought probes and were instructed to self-catch any instances of mind wandering they had during the task. Consistent with prior work, older adults reported less mind wandering overall. Critically, using thought probes, we replicated the specific pattern of an age-related reduction in negative and neutral mind-wandering reports, but similar rates of positive mind-wandering between age groups. Further, the age-related difference in negative mind wandering was still evident after accounting for participants' level of perceived stress. There were also age-related differences in participants' self-caught mind wandering. While older adults had fewer self-caught episodes overall, the age difference was largest for neutral reports and smallest for negative reports. Age-related differences in the processing of, and preference for, certain emotional information appear to be evident in participants' off-task thinking. Our findings highlight that age-related differences in mind wandering might not be consistent across different contents and that future work should consider mind-wandering content, such as emotional valence, when testing for age-related differences.

Objective markers of sustained attention fluctuate independently of mind-wandering reports

Sustained attention fluctuates between periods of good and poor attentional performance. Two major methodologies exist to study these fluctuations: an objective approach that identifies "in-the-zone" states of consistent response times (RTs) and "out-of-the-zone" states of erratic RTs and a subjective approach that asks participants whether they are on-task or mind wandering. Although both approaches effectively predict attentional lapses, it remains unclear whether they capture the same or distinct attentional fluctuations. We combined both approaches within a single sustained attention task requiring frequent responses and response inhibition to rare targets to explore their consistency (N = 40). Behaviorally, both objective out-of-the-zone and subjective mind-wandering states were associated with more attentional lapses. However, the percentage of time spent out-of-the-zone did not differ between on-task and mind-wandering periods and both objective and subjective states independently predicted error-proneness, suggesting that the two methods do not capture the same type of attention fluctuations. Whereas attentional preparation before correct inhibitions was greater during out-of-the-zone compared with in-the-zone periods, preparation did not differ by subjective state. In contrast, posterror slowing differed by both objective and subjective states, but in opposite directions: slowing was observed when participants were objectively out-of-the-zone or subjectively on-task. Overall, our results provide evidence that objective and subjective approaches capture distinct attention fluctuations during sustained attention tasks. Integrating both objective and subjective measures is crucial for fully understanding the mechanisms underlying our ability to remain focused.

Effects of emotional valence of mind wandering on sustained attention performance

The construct of mind wandering has notoriously been characterized as heterogenous which may mean that not all types of mind wandering produce the same pattern of results. One operationalization of mind wandering, task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs), can also itself vary in many dimensions, including the emotional valence of TUTs. The current study summarizes several years of work examining the impact that the emotional valence of TUTs has on different aspects of sustained attention. Participants in several studies reported whether their TUTs were negative, neutral, or positive in emotional valence during a sustained attention-to-response task (SART). The first major focus was a meta-analysis where we examined correlations between each TUT valence and SART performance measures. For the second major focus, we tested how different TUT valences changed over the course of the task. The results suggest that negative TUTs typically show stronger associations with SART performance measures, although all TUT valences have numerically similar correlations. Regarding time-on-task effects, across the studies, there was consistent evidence for a linear increase in negative TUTs across blocks. Evidence for this linear increase was not consistent for neutral and positive TUTs. The results of the current study suggest that the relationships between TUTs and performance, and their likelihood of occurring during a task, are not necessarily the same for every type of TUT. These results highlight the importance of continuing to investigate different types of TUTs and different forms of mind wandering, in general, to better understand how this phenomenon occurs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Mobilizing effort to reduce lapses of sustained attention: examining the effects of content-free cues, feedback, and points

Three experiments with the psychomotor vigilance task examined whether presenting content-free cues, feedback, and points would reduce lapses of sustained attention. In all three experiments, behavioral lapses of attention (particularly slow reaction times) were reduced with the motivation manipulations compared with control conditions, but self-reports of off-task thinking (e.g., mind-wandering) were unaffected. Pupillary responses (preparatory and phasic) also tended to be larger with the different manipulations compared to control conditions. Collectively, the results are consistent with attentional effort models, suggesting that sustained attention was improved and lapses of attention reduced owing to participants in the motivation conditions mobilizing more attentional effort than participants in the control conditions. These results are consistent with recent research, which suggests that the locus coeruleus norepinephrine system is associated with the mobilization of effort.

Age-Related Differences in Mind Wandering: The Role of Emotional Valence

OBJECTIVES

Older adults consistently report fewer experiences of mind wandering compared to younger adults. Aging is also associated with a shift in the emotional focus of our thoughts, with older adults tending to experience an increase in attention toward positive information, or a "positivity bias," relative to younger adults. Here, we tested if the positivity bias associated with aging can also predict age-related changes in the content of older adults' mind wandering.

METHOD

Older adults and younger adults completed a go/no-go task with periodic thought probes to assess rates of emotionally valenced mind wandering.

RESULTS

Older adults reported significantly less negatively and neutrally valenced mind wandering compared to younger adults, but there was no age difference in reports of positively valenced mind wandering. Overall rates of mind wandering predicted poorer task performance for both age groups: Individuals who mind wandered more, performed worse, but this did not differ by the emotional valence. Both older adults and younger adults showed similar in-the-moment performance deficits, with mind wandering reports being associated with worse immediate no-go accuracy and faster reaction times, consistent with mindless responding.

DISCUSSION

Focusing on different dimensions of thought content, such as emotional valence, can provide new insight into age-related differences in mind wandering. Older adults' mind wandering reports were less negative and neutral compared to younger adults' reports suggesting a positivity bias for older adults. However, this positivity bias does not seem to affect task performance. We discuss the implications of the findings for mind wandering theories and the positivity bias.