Drifting from Slow to "D'oh!": Working Memory Capacity and Mind Wandering Predict Extreme Reaction Times and Executive Control Errors

Autor/inn/en	McVay, Jennifer C.; Kane, Michael J.
Titel	Drifting from Slow to "D'oh!": Working Memory Capacity and Mind Wandering Predict Extreme Reaction Times and Executive Control Errors
Quelle	In: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 38 (2012) 3, S.525-549 (25 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0278-7393
DOI	10.1037/a0025896
Schlagwörter	Performance Factors; Reaction Time; Short Term Memory; Predictor Variables; Cognitive Processes; Attention; Experimental Psychology; Undergraduate Students; Color; North Carolina; Stroop Color Word Test + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Leistungsindikator; Reaktionsvermögen; Kurzzeitgedächtnis; Prädiktor; Cognitive process; Kognitiver Prozess; Aufmerksamkeit; Experimentelle Psychologie; Colour; Farbbezeichnung; Farbe
Abstract	A combined experimental, individual-differences, and thought-sampling study tested the predictions of executive attention (e.g., Engle & Kane, 2004) and coordinative binding (e.g., Oberauer, Suss, Wilhelm, & Sander, 2007) theories of working memory capacity (WMC). We assessed 288 subjects' WMC and their performance and mind-wandering rates during a sustained-attention task; subjects completed either a go/no-go version requiring executive control over habit or a vigilance version that did not. We further combined the data with those from McVay and Kane (2009) to (1) gauge the contributions of WMC and attentional lapses to the worst performance rule and the tail, or [tau] parameter, of reaction time (RT) distributions; (2) assess which parameters from a quantitative evidence-accumulation RT model were predicted by WMC and mind-wandering reports; and (3) consider intrasubject RT patterns--particularly, speeding--as potential objective markers of mind wandering. We found that WMC predicted action and thought control in only some conditions, that attentional lapses (indicated by task-unrelated-thought reports and drift-rate variability in evidence accumulation) contributed to [tau], performance accuracy, and WMC's association with them and that mind-wandering experiences were not predicted by trial-to-trial RT changes, and so they cannot always be inferred from objective performance measures. (Contains 10 tables, 8 figures and 6 footnotes.) (As Provided).
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Update	2017/4/10