The Mind's Wanderlust: A Meta-Analysis of Mind Wandering, Task-Related Interference, and Learning

Students engaged in learning experience both on and off-task thoughts. Prior research has focused on task-unrelated thoughts (TUT or mind wandering). However, off-task thoughts may also bear some relationship to the task (task-related interference, TRI). This meta-analysis aimed to determine the frequency of off-task thoughts (TRI + TUT) and the correlation of these with learning outcomes. The study included 28 samples using meta-analysis of single means for frequency determination and a mixed-effects model to examine correlations. The results show that TRI occurs 23% of the time and is not correlated with learning outcomes. TUTs occur 29% of the time and are negatively correlated with learning outcomes. Overall, based on a separate meta-analysis, off-task thoughts occur 51% of the time and are negatively correlated with learning outcomes. The results suggest that TRI should be accounted for when studying off-task thoughts, and unlike TUTs, are not considered detrimental to the learning process.