Drifting from Slow to D’oh! Working Memory Capacity and Mind Wandering Predict Extreme Reaction Times and Executive-Control Errors

摘要

A combined experimental, individual-differences, and thought-sampling study tested the predictions of executive attention (e.g., ) and coordinative binding (e.g., ) theories of working memory capacity (WMC). We assessed 288 subjects’ WMC and their performance and mind-wandering rates during a sustained-attention task; subjects completed either a goo-go version requiring executive control over habit, or a vigilance version that did not. We further combined the data with those from to: (1) gauge the contributions of WMC and attentional lapses to the worst-performance rule and the tail, or τ parameter, of response time (RT) distributions; (2) assess which parameters from a quantitative evidence-accumulation RT model were predicted by WMC and mind-wandering reports, and (3) consider intra-subject RT patterns – particularly, speeding – as potential objective markers of mind wandering. We found that WMC predicted action and thought control in only some conditions, that attentional lapses (indicated by TUT reports and drift-rate variability in evidence accumulation) contributed to τ, performance accuracy, and WMC’s association with them, and that mind-wandering experiences were not predicted by trial-to-trial RT changes, and so they cannot always be inferred from objective performance measures.