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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 8, 2026

A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions

A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions

Published on: July 16, 2015

Distracted by your mind? Individual differences in distractibility predict mind wandering.

Sophie Forster¹, Nilli Lavie²

¹Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, School of Psychology, University College London.

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition

|August 21, 2013

Summary

Mind wandering, or internally generated task-unrelated thoughts, is linked to increased susceptibility to external distractions. This study found that individual differences in mind wandering correlate with distraction from irrelevant stimuli, not response-competing ones.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience of Attention
Human Attention and Distraction

Background:

Attention is crucial for cognitive tasks but can be disrupted by external stimuli and internal thoughts (mind wandering).
Prior research predominantly investigated external distractions, leaving the relationship between mind wandering and external distraction unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the association between individual differences in mind wandering and susceptibility to different types of external distraction.
To determine if mind wandering predicts distraction from task-irrelevant stimuli versus response-competing stimuli.

Main Methods:

Participants completed self-report measures of mind wandering susceptibility.
The study assessed distraction magnitude using both response-competing distractors and salient, task-irrelevant distractors in a laboratory setting.

Main Results:

Self-reported susceptibility to mind wandering positively correlated with distraction from task-irrelevant stimuli.
No significant correlation was found between mind wandering and interference from response-competing distractors.

Conclusions:

Mind wandering reflects a general susceptibility to task-irrelevant distraction, encompassing both internal and external sources.
The findings support a unified laboratory measure for assessing general susceptibility to irrelevant distraction.