There are three unique cognitive mechanisms during note taking: generative processing, summarization, and sustained attention. Generative processing is active construction of associations between novel information and prior knowledge and experiences. Summarization forces identification of the most pertinent information to create a coherent…

"Narrative transportation" is a state of total immersion that arises when one becomes engaged in a story. In Cohen et al. (2015), participants viewed a suspenseful film either with order of scenes intact or scrambled (out of chronological order). Participants had to remember to raise their hand every time they heard a film character say…

During the past two decades, the interest in investigating the phenomenon of inattentional blindness strongly increased and resulted in a fraying of paradigms investigating this specific failure of awareness. We reviewed 129 full-text articles containing 219 experiments for their design and methods to create awareness for the growing variety of…

The current study analysed crashes identified in a large-scale naturalistic driving database to assess the prevalence of cognitive disengagement (i.e., purely cognitive distraction and mind wandering/microsleep) or episodes wherein the driver did not look away from the roadway during secondary task completion or wherein another clearly observable…

Dealing with unwanted thoughts is a recurrent phenomenon in everyday life. The present study focuses on intrusive thoughts in the work context and examines the protective function of thought control for self-esteem. Possible mediators (negative affect, task focus) and individual differences in the ability to control unwanted thoughts are also…

Mind-wandering (MW) has a negative impact on tasks requiring sustained and divided attention like driving. During MW, drivers experience perceptual decoupling. As driving is mainly a visual activity, it would seem to be appropriate to evaluate stages of visual information processing impaired during MW, using event-related potential techniques. The…

Change blindness is the striking inability to detect seemingly obvious changes that occur between views of a scene. The current study assessed perceptual load as a factor that may affect change blindness for human faces. The study had participants (n = 103) interact with a researcher in a testing room that imposed low or high perceptual load.…

Mind wandering is an inherently inner (or first-person) phenomenon that leaves few direct traces for third-person enquiry. Nonetheless, psychologists often study mind wandering using third-person (e.g., behavioral or neuronal) research methods. And although research-participants may well be asked to introspect on their mind wandering experiences…

In the present study, we examined the impact of the interaction of environmental and task-induced attentional focus on time perception, specifically awareness of the time flow. We tested 48 participants in either a natural or urban setting over three 25- to 35-min sessions. We manipulated the within-subjects factor task by means of two tasks--one…

Although the presentation of extraneous (i.e., irrelevant or unnecessary) information hinders learning, it is unclear whether and how layout and pacing influence this effect. In two experiments, participants learned how the heart functions using four different layouts: a diagram presented without unnecessary text (diagram only), with unnecessary…

Arousal has been found to increase learners' attentional resources. In contrast, seductive details (interesting but learning-irrelevant information) are considered to distract attention away from relevant information and, thus, hinder learning. However, a possibly moderating role of arousal on the seductive detail effect has not been examined yet.…

This study aimed to examine how different forms (still pictures vs. animations) of seductive illustrations impact text-and-graphic learning processes, perceptions, and outcomes. An eye-tracking experiment of three groups (static, dynamic, and control) was conducted with 60 college and graduate students while learning with PowerPoint slides about…