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The Attentional Set Shifting Task: A Measure of Cognitive Flexibility in Mice
Published on: February 4, 2015
The effect of mind wandering on cognitive flexibility is mediated by boredom
Yu-Qin Deng1, Guangyuan Shi2, Binn Zhang3
1Institute of Sports Science, Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu, PR China; School of Psychology, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, PR China.
Abstract:
Cognitive theory of boredom presumes that boredom, an important potential indicator for self-dysregulation, represents to be the result of attention failure. And lapses of attention have been shown to act as a key signal in mind wandering (especially spontaneous mind wandering), which has been found to be positively associated with boredom. If both mind wandering and boredom concurrently occupy individuals' on-task processing resources, it would definitely influence their cognitive flexibility, which is an essential component for self-regulation. Until now, however, there has been little discussion about mind wandering, boredom, and cognitive flexibility at the same time. The present study investigated the hypothesis that boredom can mediate the effect of mind wandering on cognitive flexibility at trait-level by adopting a cross-sectional exploratory study design and anonymous structured questionnaires in three studies (N = 449,182 and 190 for Studies 1, 2 and 3, respectively). Correlation analysis demonstrated that mind wandering (especially spontaneous mind wandering) was positively related to boredom, and that cognitive flexibility was negatively related to mind wandering and boredom, respectively. Mediation analysis revealed an indirect effect of mind wandering (especially spontaneous mind wandering) on cognitive flexibility through boredom. In conclusion, these findings are useful to build a theoretical framework for future clinical practice. An implication of these findings is the possibility that efficacious strategies targeting at reducing boredom are needed to decrease the detriment effect of spontaneous mind wandering on cognitive flexibility.
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