Shivang Shelat^1,2 (), Jonathan W. Schooler¹, Barry Giesbrecht^1,2; ¹University of California, Santa Barbara, ²Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies

From moment to moment, our attention fluctuates between optimal and suboptimal states. This flux has been studied using objective indices—such as response time (RT) patterns in laboratory tasks—and subjective measures, like self-reports of task-unrelated thoughts (i.e., mind-wandering). Here, we assessed the predictive utility of a real-time RT-based triggering procedure in capturing both reduced working memory encoding and the phenomenological experience of mind-wandering across various individual differences. Fifty-eight participants completed trait measures of motor impulsivity, mind-wandering propensity, and social desirability bias. Afterwards, they performed a monotonous sustained attention task that demanded a keypress on each trial and lulled them into inattentive responding. When their three-trial RT was one standard deviation above or below their cumulative RT mean, they were interrupted with either a working memory probe to report colors in locations from the previous trial or a mind-wandering probe to report the task-relatedness of their thoughts. Fast RT triggers were associated with reduced working memory encoding compared to slow triggers (b = 0.19, SE = 0.045, p < .0001). Moreover, fast triggers predicted mind-wandering self-reports when controlling for social desirability bias (b = –0.34, SE = 0.14, p = .014). The coupling between these objective and subjective measures of lapsing attention was also weaker among individuals who claimed to have socially desirable traits (b = 0.058, SE = 0.026, p = .027). Together, these findings both 1) reveal a self-presentation bias that obscures attention self-reports and 2) validate the predictive utility of RT-based triggering procedures in anticipating multiple signatures of attentional lapses. We highlight the need for an integrative approach to characterizing the human tendency to decouple from our environment by augmenting subjective techniques with objective ones.

Acknowledgements: This work is supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship awarded to the first author under grant number 2139319 and by contract W911NF-19-2-0026 from the US Army Research Office.