@article{ref1,
title="Absorbed in thought: the effect of mind wandering on the processing of relevant and irrelevant events",
journal="Psychological science",
year="2011",
author="Barron, Evelyn and Riby, Leigh M. and Greer, Joanna and Smallwood, Jonathan",
volume="22",
number="5",
pages="596-601",
abstract="This study used event-related potentials to explore whether mind wandering (task-unrelated thought, or TUT) emerges through general problems in distraction, deficits of task-relevant processing (the executive-function view), or a general reduction in attention to external events regardless of their relevance (the decoupling hypothesis). Twenty-five participants performed a visual oddball task, in which they were required to differentiate between a rare target stimulus (to measure task-relevant processes), a rare novel stimulus (to measure distractor processing), and a frequent nontarget stimulus. TUT was measured immediately following task performance using a validated retrospective measure. High levels of TUT were associated with a reduction in cortical processing of task-relevant events and distractor stimuli. These data contradict the suggestion that mind wandering is associated with distraction problems or specific deficits in task-relevant processes. Instead, the data are consistent with the decoupling hypothesis: that TUT dampens the processing of sensory information irrespective of that information's task relevance.   Keywords: Driver distraction;<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0956-7976",
doi="10.1177/0956797611404083",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797611404083"
}