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Daydreaming and Its Correlates in an Educational Environment☆ Learning and Individual Differences 21 (2011) 158–167 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Learning and Individual Differences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/lindif Daydreaming and its correlates in an educational environment☆ Sophie I. Lindquist ⁎, John P. McLean 1 School of Psychology, McElwain Building, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia article info abstract Article history: The experience of daydreaming is familiar to all, yet daydreaming and its correlates in an educational context Received 12 May 2010 have yet to be adequately explored. This study investigated academic and other potential correlates of task- Received in revised form 4 December 2010 unrelated images and thoughts (TUITs) during lectures. 463 undergraduate psychology students participated Accepted 23 December 2010 across three lecture sessions. During lectures, an auditory probe was sounded five times; alerting participants to record whether they were experiencing a TUIT at that moment. Results revealed significant negative Keywords: correlations between TUIT frequency and age, detail of notes taken and course interest. Also, those seated in Daydreaming fi Mind wandering the front third of the lecture experienced signi cantly fewer TUITs. Furthermore, as TUIT frequency increased, Seating position there was a trend towards poorer performance in course examinations, which measure the learning of Note taking lecture-based content. Academic performance © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Thoughts unrelated to sensory input or the task at hand have been across laboratory and everyday life experiences (McVay, Kane, & defined in a number of ways, including daydreaming (Singer, 1966), Kwapil, 2009). Furthermore, errors on the sustained attention to task-unrelated images and thoughts (Giambra, 1995), task-unrelated response task (SART; see Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, & thoughts (e.g. Filler & Giambra, 1973; Shaw & Giambra, 1993) and Yiend, 1997) are considered to be behavioural markers of day- mind wandering (e.g. Smallwood & Schooler, 2006). Daydreaming is dreaming (e.g. Christoff, Gordon, Smallwood, Smith, & Schooler, 2009; regarded as one of the most fascinating phenomena in the vast range Smallwood, Beach, Schooler, & Handy, 2008; Smallwood et al., 2004; of human behaviour (Singer, 1975, 1976). Singer (1966) argues that Smallwood et al., 2009). Recently, Smallwood, Beach et al. (2008) daydreaming represents a shift of attention away from some primary demonstrated a reduction in the P300 event-related potential for non- physical or mental task or from a perceptual response to external targets prior to both behavioural and subjective reports of mind stimulation towards a response to some internal stimulus. Consider- wandering relative to periods of being ‘on-task’.Furthermore, able data has documented the apparent universality of daydreaming subjective reports of daydreaming are associated with activity in a and the acknowledgement by large numbers of people that day- default network of cortical regions that are active when the brain is ‘at dreaming is a general phenomenon in their daily lives (Klinger, 1987; rest’ (Mason et al., 2007) and more recently, activity in the default and Singer, 1968, 2003) and generally reflect an individual's ‘current executive networks, two systems that have been assumed to work in concerns’ (Klinger, 1987). opposition, suggesting that daydreaming may evoke a unique mental The validity of subjective self-reports of daydreaming has been state allowing these systems to work in cooperation (Christoff et al., demonstrated in experimental studies. For example, daydreaming has 2009). been found to vary as a function of stimulus presentation rate (e.g. Research has revealed a number of important demographic correlates Antrobus, 1968; Antrobus, Singer, & Greenberg, 1966; Filler & related to daydreaming frequency. For instance, questionnaire and Giambra, 1973; Giambra, 1995; Grodsky & Giambra, 1990–1991) laboratory studies of daydreaming have revealed that daydreaming memory load (Smallwood et al., 2004; Teasdale et al., 1995) and mood frequency fluctuates as a function of age, such that as age increases, induction (Seibert & Ellis, 1991; Smallwood, Fitzgerald, Miles, & frequency of daydreaming decreases (Giambra, 1974, 1977–1978, 1979– Phillips, 2009). Individual differences in daydreaming also persist 1980, 1989, 1993, 1999–2000; Grodsky & Giambra, 1990–1991; Parks, Klinger, & Perlmutter, 1988–1989). Several studies have found no gender differences in daydreaming frequency (Giambra, 1989, 1995; Goldstein & ☆ This work has not been published elsewhere and has not been submitted Baskin, 1988; Singer, 1968; Singer & McCraven, 1961). However, in a simultaneously for publication elsewhere. study by Giambra (1979–1980) involving 1200 participants, females at ⁎ Corresponding author. 8 Bendora Crescent, Palmerston, ACT 2913, Australia. every age group experienced significantly more daydreams and signifi- Tel.: +61 2 6240 2726. cantly more absorption in daydreaming than males. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (S.I. Lindquist), [email protected] (J.P. McLean). In terms of academic correlates, Wagman (1968) found that scores 1 Tel.: +61 7 3365 6394. on the School and College Ability Test (SCAT) did not correlate with self- 1041-6080/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2010.12.006 S.I. Lindquist, J.P. McLean / Learning and Individual Differences 21 (2011) 158–167 159 reported daydreaming frequency, however a strong negative correlation on responses where participants indicated zoning out revealed poorer was observed for Grade Point Average (GPA; an averaged indicator of comprehension levels than the baseline performance of those academic achievement over a range of courses within a fixed time participants who were randomly given text recognition probes, period), but only for women. However, in a study by Gold, Andrews, and indicating that zoning out was associated with low levels of attention Minor (1985–86), students were asked to record all school-related to the text (Schooler et al., 2004). Furthermore, on a final daydreams experienced over a 14 day period. No differences were found comprehension test and intermittent recognition tests, negative on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) between students who experi- correlations between reading comprehension and both self-caught enced five or more daydreams or less than five over the recording period, and probe-caught zone outs were observed. (Schooler et al., 2004). however students recording five or more daydreams over the two week More recently, Smallwood, McSpadden, and Schooler (2008) period had better GPAs at the end of the semester than students examined whether inattention during reading impairs the ability to reporting less than five daydreams (Gold et al., 1985–86). These findings construct a mental model of ongoing events in a narrative, referred to as indicate that daydreaming frequency may have important and poten- the “situation model of the narrative” (p 1144). Participants read a tially complex implications in the educational domain. Sherlock Holmes novella, and provided reports of their mental state at One reason why daydreaming may have implications within the both random and inference critical points (when a clue to the identity of educational domain can be gleaned from experimental evidence the villain was revealed). Results revealed that the frequency of off-task indicating that when daydreaming occurs, performance on a primary episodes was associated with poorer text comprehension (Smallwood, task tends to suffer (McVay & Kane, 2009; McVay et al., 2009; Smallwood, McSpadden et al., 2008). When awareness was taken into account, Baracaia, Lowe, & Obonsawin, 2003; Smallwood, Obonsawin, & Heim, reports of off-task thoughts without awareness (zoning out) were a 2003; Smallwood et al., 2004). According to Smallwood and Schooler reliable predictor of text comprehension while reports with awareness (2006) when the mind wanders, attention becomes divided between (tuning out) were not, indicating that the consequences of inattention internal and external information, known as a decoupling of attention. during reading may depend on lacking awareness of being off-task According to Smallwood and Schooler (2006) “mind wandering can be (Smallwood, McSpadden et al., 2008). It was also found that zoning out viewed as a state of decoupled attention, because instead of monitoring prevented the retrieval of information from a specific interval in the text online sensory information, attention shifts inward and focuses on one's and prohibited the linking of events to establish the identity of the thoughts and feelings” (p 951). Smallwood, Fishman, and Schooler villain, with lapses occurring early in the narrative having the greatest (2007) argue that “in principle, because mind wandering is a state of influence (Smallwood, McSpadden et al., 2008). Smallwood, McSpad- decoupled attention, it represents a fundamental breakdown in the den et al. (2008) contend that these results confirm that zoning out individual's ability to attend, and therefore integrate, information from during reading is an indication that the construction of a situation model the external environment” (p 230). If attention is decoupled from the of the narrative has not been adequately formulated. These findings task at hand during episodes of mind wandering, representations of the provide evidence that understanding ongoing
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