The effects of motivational variables on mind wandering during reading

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Ulrich Schiefele, since 8/2020
• Subject Area: Developmental and Educational Psychology
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 427839443

Mind wandering is defined as the occurrence of thoughts that are unrelated to an ongoing activity or task and that are cued by internal mental processes rather than external events. Prior research on mind wandering suggests that mind wandering during various activities has negative effects on performance in these activities. This particularly applies to reading, which will be the focus of this project. Mind wandering during reading not only leads to superficial processing of a text’s contents but also hinders building of inferences that are relevant for comprehension. In other words, mind wandering during reading is detrimental to comprehension on multiple levels. In some studies, mind wandering even accounted for up to 20% of variance in reading comprehension after statistically controlling for predictors such as prior knowledge and working memory capacity. Given that reading constitutes one of the most important means of knowledge acquisition in both childhood and adulthood, it is imperative from the viewpoint of educational science to investigate those factors that promote or hinder mind wandering during reading. Research on mind wandering has already identified a number of important factors that increase the likelihood of mind wandering such as low working memory capacity and high text difficulty. In contrast, the relation between mind wandering and motivational variables is still underresearched. Although initial studies suggest that mind wandering is negatively associated with topic interest, an important motivational factor, the causal relation remains unclear. Moreover, there is currently no evidence regarding the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation on the occurrence of mind wandering during reading, although it seems reasonable to assume that both kinds of reading motivation should (partially) determine the degree of reading-related activity. By conducting three correlational studies, the planned project seeks to investigate the relation between different forms of reading motivation, mind wandering, and reading comprehension. Four aims of this investigation shall be highlighted. First, we seek to determine whether the investigated motivational variables can predict the occurrence of mind wandering during reading. Second, we seek to investigate whether prior findings on the effects of reading motivation on comprehension can at least partially be explained by mind wandering. (examination of potential mediator effects). Third, we will examine changes in mind wandering during reading over different time frames. Fourth, we seek to examine potentially reciprocal effects of interest and mind wandering over time.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Ehemaliger Antragsteller: Dr. Alexander Soemer, until 7/2020