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On the relation between reading difficulty and mind-wandering: a section-length account.

Noah D Forrin1, Evan F Risko2, Daniel Smilek2

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada. nforrin@uwaterloo.ca.

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Increasing reading difficulty may increase mind-wandering because harder passages often have longer text sections. This visual length, not just difficulty, appears to trigger attention disengagement.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Reading Comprehension
  • Attention Studies

Background:

  • Typically, higher task difficulty reduces mind-wandering.
  • However, reading difficult passages paradoxically increases mind-wandering.
  • The underlying mechanism for this reading-specific effect requires elucidation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the mechanism behind the positive relationship between reading difficulty and mind-wandering.
  • To determine if text presentation, specifically section length, influences mind-wandering during reading.

Main Methods:

  • Experiments 1-3 examined the impact of Flesch-Kincaid reading difficulty on mind-wandering with passages presented sentence-by-sentence.
  • Experiment 4 controlled for reading difficulty to isolate the effect of text section length (words per screen).

Main Results:

  • Reading difficulty's effect on mind-wandering was partly explained by longer text sections in harder passages.
  • When objective difficulty was constant, longer text sections were positively associated with increased mind-wandering.
  • Passage section length significantly predicts mind-wandering rates.

Conclusions:

  • The apparent length of text sections, rather than just reading difficulty, drives increased mind-wandering.
  • Longer sections may seem more demanding, leading to attention disengagement.
  • This suggests presentation format plays a crucial role in maintaining focus during reading.