The Association of Motivation with Mind Wandering in Trait and State Levels

Mind wandering is a phenomenon in which attention drifts away from a given task towards task-unrelated thoughts. Recent studies have demonstrated that mind wandering occurs during tasks in which participants are demotivated. However, motivation ranges on a continuum from trait to state. We examined the association between trait/state motivation and trait/state mind wandering. We used common questionnaires and an experience sampling method through a sustained attention response task for measuring those indices. Through correlation analyses, we demonstrated an association between motivation and mind wandering within the same dimension (trait and state, respectively) but found no association across dimensions. Our results indicate that motivation in personality affects the occurrence of daily mind wandering, but not state mind wandering, which is affected by state motivation. Although the relationship between motivation and mind wandering is substantial, mind wandering at the state-level might be a more phasic phenomenon than expected, driven by a range of factors such as state motivation.