Introduction: Mind wandering is a cognitive state that leads to diminished performance and error risk. A controversy over whether easier or more difficult tasks enhance mind wandering has led to mind wandering being proposed as two different states: deliberate and spontaneous. We hypothesise that forced engagement may inhibit non-instrumental activities including deliberate mind wandering. Methods: Twenty-eight seated, healthy participants (age range 19-35, 9 male) interacted with two pairs of stimuli, each pair having one low-interactivity version and a high-interactivity version requiring compliant activity. Mind wandering was assessed by thought probes, and mind wandering and challenge and boredom were also tested using visual analogue scales at the end of each stimulus. Reaction times were measured using Superlab with an RB530 interaction device. Results: Compliant activity decreased deliberate mind wandering but not overall mind wandering. Thought probe durations were significantly shortened by increasing interaction frequency, while deliberate and spontaneous mind wandering elicited equivalent thought probe durations. Conclusion: Compliant activity works synergistically with lack of mind wandering to accelerate the difficult task of thought probe response. This does not fit with the attentional resource model, and may require a clearer definition of how tasks may be labelled as difficult.

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Introduction: Automated tutoring systems aim to respond to the learner's cognitive state in order to maintain engagement. The end-user's state might be inferred by interactive timings, bodily movements or facial expressions. Problematic computerized stimuli are known to cause smiling during periods of frustration. Methods: Forty-four seated, healthy participants (age range 18-35, 18 male) used a handheld trackball to answer a computer-presented, formative, 3-way multiple choice geography quiz, with 9 questions, lasting a total of 175 seconds. Frontal facial videos (10 Hz) were collected with a webcam and processed for facial expressions by CrowdEmotion using a pattern recognition algorithm. Interactivity was recorded by a keystroke logger (Inputlog 5.2). Subjective responses were collected immediately after each quiz using a panel of visual analogue scales (VAS). Results: Smiling was five-fold enriched during the instantaneous feedback segments of the quiz, and this was correlated with VAS ratings for engagement but not with happiness or frustration. Nevertheless, smiling rate was significantly higher after wrong answers compared to correct ones, and frustration was correlated with the number of questions answered incorrectly. Conclusion: The apparent disconnect between the increased smiling during incorrect answers but the lack of correlation between VAS frustration and smiles suggests a trigger-substrate model where engagement is the permissive substrate, while the noises made by the quiz after wrong answers may be the trigger. CCS CONCEPTS• HCI design and evaluation methods; * Correspondence: h.witchel@bsms.ac.uk † Current address: IMS, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s