Reconsidering the Mind-Wandering Reader: Predictive Processing, Probability Designs, and Enculturation

Abstract

Studies on mind-wandering frequently use reading as an experimental task. In these studies, reading is conceived as a cognitive process that potentially offers a contrast to mind-wandering, because it seems to be task-related, goal-directed and stimulus-dependent. More recent work attempts to avoid the dichotomy of successful cognitive processes and processes of mind-wandering found in earlier studies. We approach the issue from the perspective that texts provoke modes of cognitive involvement different from the information processing and recall account that underlies many early mind-wandering studies. After all, reading itself is an umbrella term for activities that are characterized by a variety of phenomenological and functional signatures. We conceptualize reading and mind-wandering in relation to each other through the framework of enculturated predictive processing, which is informed by research in literary studies. Earlier accounts think of reading predominantly in terms of the construction of situation models that organize textual information. By contrast, enculturated predictive processing foregrounds shifting stances readers can take in relation to the text. Characters featuring in literary texts might be mind-wandering themselves, or passages in literary style might make the construction of a clearly defined situational model impossible. Furthermore, we take into account that texts often elicit mind-wandering through the construction of task-relevant and attention-driven virtual scenarios in readers' minds. This more complex account of reading can enrich recent attempts to understand mind-wandering as a complex, multi-dimensional phenomenon. The study of mind-wandering can benefit, we argue, from a closer attention to the process of reading and to the texts it deploys as stimuli. The emerging perspective from enculturated predictive processing and literary studies makes distinctions in reading that in turn enable research on mind-wandering to ask more precise questions about (1) different kinds of mind-wandering, (2) different modes of reading, and (3) how and where they interconnect across time.

The inattentive on-screen reading: Reading medium affects attention and reading comprehension under time pressure

“…In this type of task, the occurrence and maintenance of TUTs entails that top-down attention shifts from the text content to the individual's internal activity, causing a temporary mindless reading mode. Although recent approaches suggest that mindwandering could be beneficial to understand some passages of literary texts that, in fact, require the readers' mind to wander (see Fabry & Kukkonen, 2019 ), its detrimental consequences for reading comprehension have been widely reported ( Feng et al, 2013 ; McVay & Kane, 2012 ; Soemer & Schiefele, 2019 ; Unsworth & McMillan, 2013 ). The present study tests the hypothesis that shallow processing on screen is related to inattentive reading.…”

Mind wandering during reading: An interdisciplinary and integrative review of psychological, computing, and intervention research and theory

“…Whereas this may be the case for informational, expository, and perhaps even some narrative texts, a reader of literary texts may adopt an entirely different goal, for example, reflecting on the underlying rhetorical structure or admiring the use of metaphor, irrespective of the actual narrative arc of the text. Fabry and Kukkonen (2019) suggested that investigating mind wandering during reading of literary texts might entail an entirely different research approach and proposed an alternate theoretical perspective of enculturated predictive processing than the standard models of comprehension (McNamara & Magliano, 2009). Whereas a traditional conceptualization of mind wandering as 'off-task thought' in most reading studies might be too vague to discriminate, for example, among processing the textual content versus the literary structure of a text, it does distinguish thoughts about laundry, an unrelated memory, or the room temperature, suggesting that perhaps the concern is a bit overstated.…”

Communication, Cognition and Competency Development in Healthcare – A model for integrating cognitive ethnography and communication skills training in clinical interventions

“…Implementation of clinical interventions takes place in a socio-cultural and organizational context, where procedures, norms, surrounding, interieur, experiences and expectations, affect cognitive processes [137,138], including ways in which HCPs perceive, interpret and make sense of both patient communication and of facilitatory intentions. Evidence derived from experimental studies of learning additionally suggests that learning (being a cognitive function/process) is an embodied activity and affected by multiple factors "spanning cognitive-emotional aspects (fatigue, hunger, lack of motivation) [139], external properties of the study environment (light, sound, ventilation, artefacts) [140,141] and embodied and socio-historical aspects (movement and social and experiential background [142][143][144]" (Trasmundi, personal communication 11.06.2020). We therefore need a more systematic knowledge about real-life clinical practices, including how internal (bodily)…”