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How Does Mind-wandering Affect Distractor Suppression?

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How Does Mind-wandering Affect Distractor Suppression?

Related Experiment Video

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

How Does Mind-Wandering Affect Distractor Suppression?

Han Zhang¹, Kevin F Miller², John Jonides¹

¹Department of Psychology, University of Michigan.

Visual Cognition

|September 18, 2025

View abstract on PubMed

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Suppressing attention to distractors doesn't need attentional resources initially. However, mind-wandering can prolong search times when distractors are present, impacting later processing stages.

Keywords:

attentional capture eye movements mind-wandering visual search

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Visual Attention Research

Background:

Overt attention suppression is crucial for effective visual search.
Attentional resources are thought to be limited and necessary for cognitive control.
The role of attentional resources in inhibiting salient distractors remains debated.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether suppressing overt attention to a salient distractor requires attentional resources.
To examine the influence of mind-wandering on distractor interference during visual search.
To determine if initial eye movements accurately reflect distractor interference.

Main Methods:

Participants performed a feature-search task, searching for a target shape amidst varying distractors.

Thought probes assessed mind-wandering, and pupil size measured attentional resource fluctuations.

Eye movements were tracked to analyze initial fixations and search patterns.

Main Results:

Suppression of initial eye movements towards the distractor occurred irrespective of attentional resource availability.
Mind-wandering led to increased target looking time in the presence of a distractor.
Initial overt attention deployment appeared automatic, not resource-dependent, but distractors could impede later processing.

Conclusions:

Initial overt attention to salient distractors in feature search may be automatic, driven by selection history.
Distractor interference can affect later visual processing stages, especially during mind-wandering.
Eye movements alone do not fully capture the extent of distractor interference throughout visual search.