Mind-Wandering With and Without Intention

Abstract

The past decade has seen a surge of research examining mind-wandering, but most of this research has not considered the potential importance of distinguishing between intentional and unintentional mind-wandering. However, a recent series of papers have demonstrated that mind-wandering reported in empirical investigations frequently occurs with and without intention, and, more crucially, that intentional and unintentional mind-wandering are dissociable. This emerging literature suggests that, to increase clarity in the literature, there is a need to reconsider the bulk of the mind-wandering literature with an eye toward deconvolving these two different cognitive experiences. In this review we highlight recent trends in investigations of the intentionality of mind-wandering, and we outline a novel theoretical framework regarding the mechanisms underlying intentional and unintentional mind-wandering.

Keywords: deliberate; intentional; intentionality; mind-wandering; spontaneous; unintentional.

Figure I. Rates of Overall, Intentional, and Unintentional Mind-Wandering in the Classroom across and Entire Semester

Mean proportion of the thought probes to which participants responded that they were engaging in overall (either intentional or unintentional), intentional, or unintentional mind-wandering (squares), as well as individual data points for each student included in the analysis (circles). Error bars reflect 95% confidence intervals. Adapted from [49].

Figure I. Brain Activations during Periods of Mind-Wandering Contrasted with the Default Mode Network (DMN) and the Frontoparietal Control Network

Significant meta-analytic clusters of brain activity associated with periods of mind-wandering (green clusters) contrasted with the DMN (blue) and frontoparietal control network (red). Meta-analytic activity associated with mind-wandering shows marked overlap with both the DMN and frontoparietal control network. DMN and frontoparietal control network masks are based on aggregate data from 1000 subjects, as reported by [100]. Taken from [35].

Figure 1 (Key Figure). Dissociations of Intentional and Unintentional Mind-Wandering

(A) Mean proportion of the thought probes to which participants reported overall mind-wandering (the sum of intentional and unintentional mind-wandering), intentional mind-wandering, or unintentional mind-wandering. Error bars are ± 1 SEM. Adapted from [41]. (B) Mean proportion of mind-wandering type (intentional, unintentional) reported during an easy and a difficult sustained-attention task. Participants reported more intentional mind-wandering in the easy than in the difficult condition, and conversely, more unintentional mind-wandering in the difficult than in the easy condition. Error bars are ± 1 SEM. Adapted from [44] (reprinted with permission from Psychological Science). (C) Scatterplot showing a non-significant relation between mean trait-level reports of intentional mind-wandering (residualized on trait-level reports of unintentional mind-wandering) and mean attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptomatology, assessed by the Adult Self-Report ADHD scale (ASRS). Adapted from [23] (reprinted with permission from Springer Nature Publishing Group). (D) Scatterplot showing a significant positive relation between mean trait-level reports of unintentional mind-wandering (residualized on trait-level reports of intentional mind-wandering) and mean ADHD symptomatology, assessed by the ASRS. Adapted from [23] (reprinted with permission from Springer Nature Publishing Group).