A Resource-Control Account of Sustained Attention: Evidence From Mind-Wandering and Vigilance Paradigms. (January 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Thomson, David R.; Besner, Derek; Smilek, Daniel
• Is Part Of: Perspectives on psychological science. Volume 10:Number 1(2015)
• Page Start: 82
• Page End: 96
• Publication Date: 2015-01
• Subjects: vigilance -- mind wandering -- sustained attention -- executive control -- attentional resources; Psychology -- Periodicals; 150
• DOI: 10.1177/1745691614556681
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1745-6916

Abstract

Staying attentive is challenging enough when carrying out everyday tasks, such as reading or sitting through a lecture, and failures to do so can be frustrating and inconvenient. However, such lapses may even be life threatening, for example, if a pilot fails to monitor an oil-pressure gauge or if a long-haul truck driver fails to notice a car in his or her blind spot. Here, we explore two explanations of sustained-attention lapses. By one account, task monotony leads to an increasing preoccupation with internal thought (i.e., mind wandering). By another, task demands result in the depletion of information-processing resources that are needed to perform the task. A review of the sustained-attention literature suggests that neither theory, on its own, adequately explains the full range of findings. We propose a novel framework to explain why attention lapses as a function of time-on-task by combining aspects of two different theories of mind wandering: attentional resource (Smallwood & Schooler, 2006) and control failure (McVay & Kane, 2010). We then use our "resource-control" theory to explain performance decrements in sustained-attention tasks. We end by making some explicit predictions regarding mind wandering in general and sustained-attention performance in particular.