Working memory capacity, mind wandering, and creative cognition: An individual-differences investigation into the benefits of controlled versus spontaneous thought

Should executive control, as indicated by working memory capacity (WMC) and mind-wandering propensity, help or hinder creativity? Sustained and focused attention should help guide a selective search of solution-relevant information in memory and help inhibit uncreative, yet accessible, ideas. However, unfocused attention and daydreaming should allow mental access to more loosely relevant concepts, remotely linked to commonplace solutions. Three individual-differences studies inserted incubation periods into 1 or 2 divergent thinking tasks and tested whether WMC (assessed by complex span tasks) and incubation-period mind wandering (assessed as probed reports of task-unrelated thought [TUT]) predicted postincubation performance. Retrospective self-reports of Openness (Experiment 2) and mind-wandering and daydreaming propensity (Experiment 3) complemented our thought-probe assessments of TUT. WMC did not correlate with creativity in divergent thinking, whereas only the questionnaire measure of daydreaming, but not probed thought reports, weakly predicted creativity; the fact that in-the-moment TUTs did not correlate with divergent creativity is especially problematic for claims that mind-wandering processes contribute to creative cognition. Moreover, the fact that WMC tends to strongly predict analytical problem solving and reasoning, but may not correlate with divergent thinking, provides a useful boundary condition for defining WMC’s nomological net. On balance, our data provide no support for either benefits or costs of executive control for at least 1 component of creativity

Instructor presence effect: Liking does not always lead to learning

The final publication is available at Elsevier via https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.03.011 © 2018. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Online education provides the opportunity to present lecture material to students in different formats or modalities, however there is debate about which lecture formats are best. Here, we conducted four experiments with 19–68 year old online participants to address the question of whether visuals of the instructor in online video lectures benefit learning. In Experiments 1 (N = 168) and 2 (N = 206) participants were presented with a lecture in one of three modalities (audio, audio with text, or audio with visuals of the instructor). Participants reported on their attentiveness – mind wandering (MW) – throughout the lecture and then completed a comprehension test. We found no evidence of an advantage for video lectures with visuals of the instructor in terms of a reduction in MW or increase in comprehension. In fact, we found evidence of a comprehension cost, suggesting that visuals of instructors in video lectures may act as a distractor. In Experiments 3 (N = 88) and 4 (N = 109) we explored learners' subjective evaluations of lecture formats across 4 different lecture formats (audio, text, audio + text, audio + instructor, audio + text + instructor). The results revealed learners not only find online lectures with visuals of the instructor more enjoyable and interesting, they believe this format most facilitates their learning. Taken together, these results suggest visuals of the instructor potentially impairs comprehension, but learners prefer and believe they learn most effectively with this format. We refer to as the Instructor Presence Effect and discuss implications for multimedia learning and instructional design.Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada SSHRC) Insight Discovery Grant (70104)Canada Research Chairs program (056562)Early Researcher Award from the Province of Ontario (058402)Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant (RGPIN-2014-06459

Real Boys Don\u27t Do Language and Literacy--Or Do They?

Over the past several decades, there has been a decline in boys’ achievement, along with documentation of increasing struggles in language (both first and second) and literacy acquisition (Carr & Pauwels, 2006). To address this problem, gender differences have been looked at through the lens of socially and culturally constructed identity (Kindlon & Thompson, 2000; Pollack, 1998); however, emerging neurolinguistic research supports biological determinism, with evidence of strong biological (sex) differences in brain structure and function that impact language and learning (Bonomo, 2010; Gurian, 1996; Sax, 2005). This paper first provides an overview of current brain-based research on sex differences, including differences in the structure, development, and functioning of the brain, followed by discussion of the implications of these differences for language learning and literacy acquisition, with specific recommendations for working with second language learners (Carr & Pauwels, 2006) in the K-12 classroom (King, Gurian, & Stevens, 2010; Smith & Wilhelm, 2002)

Understanding the behavioral and neurocognitive relation between mind wandering and learning

In the last decade, tremendous advances have been made in the effort to understand mind wandering, yet many questions remain unanswered. Chief among them is how mind wandering relates to learning. Insofar as mind wandering has been linked to poor learning, finding ways to reduce the propensity to mind wander could potentially improve learning. Two experiments were conducted to examine this. The first experiment evaluated how difficulty of the to-be-learned materials affected one’s tendency to mind wander and revealed that people mind wandered when there was a mismatch between their level of expertise and the difficulty of materials studied. The second experiment compared whether participants were more likely to mind wander in blocked or interleaved conditions and showed that participants were more likely to mind wander when materials were presented in a blocked fashion. Together, these results indicate that techniques such as studying materials specific to one’s own level of mastery or changing the way in which one studies might reduce mind wandering and improve learning. Of equal importance is the question of what happens on in the brain when a person mind wanders. While the effect of mind wandering on early sensory processing is known, the impact it has on learning-related processing is not. In two event-related potential (ERP) experiments, participants were asked to report whether they were mind wandering or not while studying materials they were later tested on. Analyses revealed that elaborative semantic processing – indexed by a late, sustained slow wave that was maximal at posterior parietal electrode sites – was attenuated when participants mind wandered. Crucially, the pattern when people were on task rather than mind wandering was similar to the subsequent memory effect previously reported by other memory researchers, suggesting that mind wandering disrupts the deep level of processing required for learning

The Artisan Teacher: A Field Guide to Skillful Teaching

A capstone submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in the College of Education at Morehead State University by Michael A. Rutherford on March 26, 2013

Drifting from slow to “D’oh!” Working memory capacity and mind wandering predict extreme reaction times and executive-control errors.

A combined experimental, individual-differences, and thought-sampling study tested the predictions of executive attention (e.g., Engle & Kane, 2004) and coordinative binding (e.g., Oberauer, Süß, Wilhelm, & Sander, 2007) theories of working memory capacity (WMC). We assessed 288 subjects' WMC and their performance and mind-wandering rates during a sustained-attention task; subjects completed either a go/no-go version requiring executive control over habit or a vigilance version that did not. We further combined the data with those from McVay and Kane (2009) to (1) gauge the contributions of WMC and attentional lapses to the worst performance rule and the tail, or t parameter, of reaction time (RT) distributions; (2) assess which parameters from a quantitative evidence-accumulation RT model were predicted by WMC and mind-wandering reports; and (3) consider intrasubject RT patterns—particularly, speeding—as potential objective markers of mind wandering. We found that WMC predicted action and thought control in only some conditions, that attentional lapses (indicated by task-unrelated-thought reports and drift-rate variability in evidence accumulation) contributed to t, performance accuracy, and WMC's association with them and that mind-wandering experiences were not predicted by trial-to-trial RT changes, and so they cannot always be inferred from objective performance measures

The scientific study of passive thinking: Methods of mind wandering research

The science of mind wandering has rapidly expanded over the past 20 years. During this boom, mind wandering researchers have relied on self-report methods, where participants rate whether their minds were wandering. This is not an historical quirk. Rather, we argue that self-report is indispensable for researchers who study passive phenomena like mind wandering. We consider purportedly “objective” methods that measure mind wandering with eye tracking and machine learning. These measures are validated in terms of how well they predict self-reports, which means that purportedly objective measures of mind wandering retain a subjective core. Mind wandering science cannot break from the cycle of self-report. Skeptics about self-report might conclude that mind wandering science has methodological foundations of sand. We take a rather more optimistic view. We present empirical and philosophical reasons to be confident in self-reports about mind wandering. Empirically, these self-reports are remarkably consistent in their contents and behavioral and neural correlates. Philosophically, self-reports are consistent with our best theories about the function of mind wandering. We argue that this triangulation gives us reason to trust both theory and method

Good Thoughts, Bad Thoughts? Investigating the Nature of the Wandering Mind and How to Capture It

This dissertation aims at painting a balanced picture of the wandering mind’s nature, strengthening an adaptive view of the phenomenon of drifting thoughts. First, negative consequences of drifting thoughts will be contrasted with positive ones, and I further aim to bring both sides of the medal more in line by focusing on thought-regulation processes. Previous insights will then be enriched by new contributions: I will introduce memory as a newly considered domain, which I found to benefit from mind-wandering processes. From a more methodological perspective and within the domains of creativity and problem-solving, I will not only take a look at possible further mind-wandering benefits, but also present a new research paradigm. This paradigm allows for the closer investigation of possibly thought-altering and intrusive effects of thought probes, the most widely applied mind-wandering assessment method. Thought probes ask participants about their current thoughts during a task and might thus modify the mind-wandering experience itself, thereby complicating the search for positive effects of the phenomenon. As such probes further rely on self-reports and thus contain a subjective component, I will finally report a review and validation study of eye-movement measures as objective mind-wandering indicators. Thus, this dissertation presents an investigation of the nature of the wandering mind as well as of subjective and objective thought-assessment methods

The Performing Arts: An Equalizer In Education For All Students, A Teaching Artist’s Perspective

This thesis explores the topic of performing arts integration in public education from the perspective of a teaching artist. The writing is comprised of a series of personal narratives woven together with scholarly references addressing education policy, applied behavior analysis, inequities in exclusionary practices and Autism Spectrum Disorder research. The intention is to draw awareness to the accessible role of teaching artists in public schools, the benefits of performing arts integration in education, and potential education policy shifts that could allow for students to learn empathy, vulnerability and sense of belonging. These narratives are used to support my position that if students learn these transferable skills, regardless of their socio-economic status, physical or mental abilities, they will be able to gain access to a more equal educational experience

The effects of response probability on commission errors in high go low no-go dual response versions of the sustained attention to response task (SART)

In the current investigation, we modified the high Go low No-Go Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) by replacing the single response on Go trials with a dual response (dual response SART or DR SART). In three experiments a total of 80 participants completed the SART and versions of the DR SART in which response probabilities varied from 50-50, through 70-30 to 90-10. The probability of No-Go withhold stimuli was .11 in all experiments. Using a dynamic utility based model proposed by Peebles and Bothell (2004) we predicted that the 50-50 DR-SART would dramatically reduce commission errors. Additionally, the model predicted that the probability of commission errors to be an increasing function of response frequency. Both predictions were confirmed. Although the increasing rate of commission errors with response probability can also be accommodated by the rationale originally proposed for the SART by its creators (Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, & Yiend, 1997) the fact that the current DR SART results and SART findings in general can be accommodated by a utility model without need for any attention processes is a challenge to views that ascribe commission errors to lapses of sustained attention