Το mind-wandering και η σχέση του με την ανάπτυξη του γνωστικού ελέγχου από την εφηβεία προς την ενηλικίωση. Master Thesis Research

Abstract

The phenomenon of mind-wandering seems to be closely related to the development of cognitive control, yet how it changes during adolescence towards adulthood remains unknown.      

This research focuses on the developmental changes of mind-wandering and in particular how it is linked to the development of cognitive control. The study looked at mind-wandering during a choice reaction time and a working memory. We then examined the effect of cognitive control on the incidence of mind-wandering. The purpose of the study was to find out whether adolescents are more often driven to thoughts unconnected with the current work - distraction from the current stimulus due to internal thoughts or external stimuli - in relation to adults, and if this frequency varies according to the difficulty Of the current project. Finally, it was investigated whether maturation and cognitive function affect the concentration in the current work. Individual self-reports and emotional Go / NoGo tasks were used to collect the data.    

The results of the survey showed that participants make more mistakes and display higher levels of mind-wandering during easy work than during the difficult one. It has been found that adolescents are more often driven to thoughts that are not related to the current work than adults during the easy task. On the contrary, in the difficult task the results did not vary according to age. Finally, it was found that individual differences in cognitive control are linked to the likelihood that subjects will be led to more frequent mind-wandering. The better the cognitive control, the fewer the chances of the mind "wandering".      In conclusion, it turned out that age does not affect cognitive control, but the difficulty of the current project plays an important role. Finally, mind-wandering appears to be due to the failure of the executive functions to maintain the inner flow of thoughts and thus create non-executive hypothesis.