Attention has a seemingly inevitable tendency to turn inward toward our thoughts. Mind-wandering refers to moments when this inward focus diverts attention away from the current task-at-hand. Mind-wandering is thought to be ubiquitous, having been estimated to occur between 30% and 50% of our waking moments. Yet, it is unclear whether this frequency is similar within-task performance contexts and unknown whether mind-wandering systematically increases with time-on-task for a broad range of tasks. We conducted a systematic literature search and individual participant data meta-analysis of rates of occurrence of mind-wandering during task performance. Our search located 68 research reports providing almost a half-million total responses to experience sampling mind-wandering probes from more than 10,000 unique individuals. Latent growth curve models estimated the initial occurrence of mind-wandering and linear change in mind-wandering over sequential probes for each study sample, and effects were summarized using multivariate meta-analysis. Our results confirm that mind-wandering increases in frequency over time during task performance, implicating mind-wandering in characteristic within-task psychological changes, such as increasing boredom and patterns of worsening behavioral performance with time-on-task. The systematic search and meta-analysis provide the most comprehensive assessment of normative rates of mind-wandering during task performance reported to date. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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在任务执行过程中，走神频率随着时间的推移而增加：个体参与者元分析审查。


注意力似乎不可避免地倾向于向内转向我们的想法。走神是指这种向内的注意力将注意力从当前手头的任务上转移开的时刻。走神被认为是普遍存在的，据估计，我们清醒时的 30% 到 50% 都会出现走神现象。然而，目前尚不清楚这种频率是否与任务绩效环境中相似，也不清楚走神是否会随着广泛任务的执行时间而系统性地增加。我们对任务执行过程中走神的发生率进行了系统的文献检索和个体参与者数据荟萃分析。我们的搜索找到了 68 份研究报告，提供了近 50 万份来自 10,000 多个独特个体的走神体验抽样调查的总回复。潜在生长曲线模型估计了每个研究样本的走神初始发生情况以及走神在连续探针中的线性变化，并使用多变量荟萃分析总结了效果。我们的研究结果证实，在任务执行过程中，走神频率随着时间的推移而增加，这表明走神与任务内的特征性心理变化有关，例如随着任务时间的推移，无聊感增加以及行为表现恶化的模式。系统搜索和荟萃分析提供了迄今为止报告的任务执行期间走神正常率的最全面评估。 （PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。