Abstract
The current study examined how external stimuli prompt meta-awareness of mind wandering, focusing on disrupting focus attention. Participants were asked to identify and respond to the target’s location, and reaction times were measured. A salient cue (red circle) appeared randomly before the target. To acquire points when the cue prompted meta-awareness of mind wandering, participants were asked to press a key when they caught their mind wandering state. On the one hand, to acquire points when meta-awareness did not occur despite the cue presentation, a probe to ask participants whether they were in the mind wandering was presented after the 40% cues. Results showed that increase of reaction time just after the cue was found only when participants detected mind wandering after the cue. This seemed to reflect that the cue disrupted the focus attention to the mind wandering, supporting the hypothesis that disruption of focus attention triggers the meta-awareness.
