Tracking the wandering mind: Memory, mouse movements and decision making styles

Mind wandering involves internally focused attention, and is often conceptualized as the opposite of external attention that is oriented towards the task at hand. Individuals vary ac- cording to the amount they mind wander as well as with re- gards to the pattern of oscillations between mind wandering thoughts and externally directed, focused thought. Assuming that mind wandering is influenced by episodic contents, we ex- plore the proposition that mind wandering frequency is related to the manner in which individuals deal with the contents of episodic memory, as reflected by a maximizing decision mak- ing style. Based on previous studies measuring cognitive pro- cesses, we assume that mouse trajectories towards a particu- lar response on the screen are continuously updated by time- dependent and temporally-dynamic cognitive processes. As a behavioral methodology, mouse tracking provides potential cues to help predict mind wandering. In our experiment, a to- tal of 274 students completed a decision making questionnaire, episodic and associative memory tests (during which mouse movements were recorded) and a working memory task, dur- ing which mind wandering thoughts were assessed. We found certain mouse movement characteristics to be significantly pre- dictive of mind wandering. Also, a maximizing decision mak- ing style appeared to be related to a particular type of mind wandering, namely, task-related interference.