Date of Award

8-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Psychological Science

Department

Psychology

First Reader/Committee Chair

Hideya Koshino

Abstract

Mind wandering (MW) is affected by multiple factors. Among those factors, the present study investigated the effects of working memory capacity on task demands on types of mind wandering. It was hypothesized that individuals with high working memory capacity (WMC) would show more intentional mind wandering in a low demanding task, and in this case, task performance would not be impaired. On the other hand, individuals with low working memory capacity would show more unintentional mind wandering in the high demand condition; therefore, task performance would be affected. Task demand was manipulated with verbal n-back tasks and WMC was measured with working memory span tasks. The hypotheses were not supported by the results. It was found that intentional MW occurred more frequently in the high demand condition relative to the low demand condition, while no difference was found between conditions for unintentional MW. Additionally, in the high demand condition, individuals with high WMC were more likely to have performance decline as unintentional MW increased. Furthermore, a positive relationship between WMC and motivation was observed. Theoretical implications are discussed.

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