changes in the electroencephalogram (EEG) (, , ) and fMRI (, , ). At the neural level multi-voxel pattern analysis has been able to predict subjective reports of the content of thought at rest based on task based examples of the same types of thought (). These verify the subjective measures and allow different cognitive and neural accounts of the mind-wandering experience to be tested. They also raise the possibility that indirect markers for mind-wandering could ultimately be used to detect the occurrence of mind-wandering without interrupting the participants. Although ES is an The influence of measurement on the mind-wandering state. invaluable tool in the study of mind-wandering, it also carries the risk that introspection changes the nature of the state that is being assessed. Online ES alerts the participant to the key dependent measure of the experiment and by periodically disrupting the on-going task disrupts the natural dynamics of both task performance and of the experience itself. Finally, because introspection has the potential to change the psychological meaning of an event, ES could also actually alter the quality of the experience itself. One solution is to acquire self-report data after participants have completed an experimental session. Although this measure necessarily depends on memory, it allows the collection of data without artificial disruptions and is useful because by preserving the integrity of time course data, it allows temporal properties in objective measures to be related to ES data. Retrospective indicators of self-generated-thought have been related to the dynamical changes that occur in the time-series data derived from pupilometry (), the EEG (), and the BOLD signal at rest ().
changes in the electroencephalogram (EEG) (, , ) and fMRI (, , ). At the neural level multi-voxel pattern analysis has been able to predict subjective reports of the content of thought at rest based on task based examples of the same types of thought (). These verify the subjective measures and allow different cognitive and neural accounts of the mind-wandering experience to be tested. They also raise the possibility that indirect markers for mind-wandering could ultimately be used to detect the occurrence of mind-wandering without interrupting the participants. The influence of measurement on the mind-wandering state. Although ES is an invaluable tool in the study of mind-wandering, it also carries the risk that introspection changes the nature of the state that is being assessed. Online ES alerts the participant to the key dependent measure of the experiment and by periodically disrupting the on-going task disrupts the natural dynamics of both task performance and of the experience itself. Finally, because introspection has the potential to change the psychological meaning of an event, ES could also actually alter the quality of the experience itself. One solution is to acquire self-report data after participants have completed an experimental session. Although this measure necessarily depends on memory, it allows the collection of data without artificial disruptions and is useful because by preserving the integrity of time course data, it allows temporal properties in objective measures to be related to ES data. Retrospective indicators of self-generated-thought have been related to the dynamical changes that occur in the time-series data derived from pupilometry (), the EEG (), and the BOLD signal at rest ().
2014.03.20_Annual_Review_Final_3.docx