{"title":"The impact of mind wandering on the recall of central ideas","authors":"Amanda C. Miller, Irene Adjei, Hannah Christensen","doi":"10.1007/s11145-023-10495-3","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Mind wandering occurs when a reader’s thoughts are unrelated to the text’s ideas. We examined the relation between mind wandering and readers’ memory for text. More specifically, we assessed whether mind wandering inhibits the reader’s development of the situation model and thus their ability to identify and recall the text’s most central ideas. Undergraduate participants (<i>M</i> = 18.92 years; <i>SD</i> = 1.32) read and recalled three expository passages. Participants responded to intermittent probes to report mind wandering frequency. We examined how mind wandering impacted the readers’ situation model, indicated by the proportion of central and peripheral ideas recalled. Using path analysis models, we found that mind wandering negatively predicted the recall of central, but not peripheral, ideas. The effect of mind wandering on the recall of central ideas was not explained by working memory span (measured by WAIS-IV digit span backward and letter-number sequencing), word reading skill (measured by Letter-Word Identification and Word Attack), or general reading comprehension skill (measured by the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test). These results indicate that mind wandering hinders the recognition and recall of a text’s most central ideas and suggest that mind wandering impacts the development of a coherent situation model. This effect seems to be independent of working memory, word reading, and general reading comprehension skill. Future studies should test approaches to decrease mind wandering among adult readers.</p>","PeriodicalId":48204,"journal":{"name":"Reading and Writing","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Reading and Writing","FirstCategoryId":"95","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-023-10495-3","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Mind wandering occurs when a reader’s thoughts are unrelated to the text’s ideas. We examined the relation between mind wandering and readers’ memory for text. More specifically, we assessed whether mind wandering inhibits the reader’s development of the situation model and thus their ability to identify and recall the text’s most central ideas. Undergraduate participants (M = 18.92 years; SD = 1.32) read and recalled three expository passages. Participants responded to intermittent probes to report mind wandering frequency. We examined how mind wandering impacted the readers’ situation model, indicated by the proportion of central and peripheral ideas recalled. Using path analysis models, we found that mind wandering negatively predicted the recall of central, but not peripheral, ideas. The effect of mind wandering on the recall of central ideas was not explained by working memory span (measured by WAIS-IV digit span backward and letter-number sequencing), word reading skill (measured by Letter-Word Identification and Word Attack), or general reading comprehension skill (measured by the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test). These results indicate that mind wandering hinders the recognition and recall of a text’s most central ideas and suggest that mind wandering impacts the development of a coherent situation model. This effect seems to be independent of working memory, word reading, and general reading comprehension skill. Future studies should test approaches to decrease mind wandering among adult readers.
期刊介绍:
Reading and writing skills are fundamental to literacy. Consequently, the processes involved in reading and writing and the failure to acquire these skills, as well as the loss of once well-developed reading and writing abilities have been the targets of intense research activity involving professionals from a variety of disciplines, such as neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics and education. The findings that have emanated from this research are most often written up in a lingua that is specific to the particular discipline involved, and are published in specialized journals. This generally leaves the expert in one area almost totally unaware of what may be taking place in any area other than their own. Reading and Writing cuts through this fog of jargon, breaking down the artificial boundaries between disciplines. The journal focuses on the interaction among various fields, such as linguistics, information processing, neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, speech and hearing science and education. Reading and Writing publishes high-quality, scientific articles pertaining to the processes, acquisition, and loss of reading and writing skills. The journal fully represents the necessarily interdisciplinary nature of research in the field, focusing on the interaction among various disciplines, such as linguistics, information processing, neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, speech and hearing science and education. Coverage in Reading and Writing includes models of reading, writing and spelling at all age levels; orthography and its relation to reading and writing; computer literacy; cross-cultural studies; and developmental and acquired disorders of reading and writing. It publishes research articles, critical reviews, theoretical papers, and case studies. Reading and Writing is one of the most highly cited journals in Education, Educational Research, and Educational Psychology.