Mind-wandering and attentional control: two sides of the same coin or independent processes?

Mind-wandering refers to the occurrence of thoughts whose content is both unrelated to the task that we are currently carrying out and decoupled from current sensory perceptions (e.g., having our mind distracted by past memories or future concerns when reading a novel). Recent frameworks suggest that the occurrence of mind-wandering reflects temporary breakdowns in attentional control processes. Other proposals however consider that mind-wandering is a cognitive process of its own, independent of attentional control. Based on the dual mechanisms of control framework (Braver et al., 2007), we examined whether proactive and reactive attentional control processes (measured with the A-X Continuous Performance Test), as well as working memory capacity (WMC), are related to the occurrence of mind-wandering during the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART). Results showed that WMC was positively related to proactive but not reactive control, while the frequency of mind-wandering was unrelated to these three measures of attentional control. Additionally, we found that proactive control, reactive control, WMC, and mind-wandering contributed significantly and independently to the prediction of commission errors during the SART. These results suggest that mind-wandering is not the mere reflection of attentional control abilities and that these two factors have separate influences on task performance.