Abstract
This study examines how individuals become aware of mind wandering (task-unrelated thoughts) by focusing on the role of external stimuli as prompts. In Experiment 1, participants engaged in a sustained attention-to-response task. They were instructed to press a key whenever they found their minds wandering. Three types of critical trials occurred randomly: supraliminal-cue trials where a visible cue-stimulus (red circle) was presented for 300 ms at a fixation point, subliminal-cue trials where a cue stimulus (white circle) was presented for 10 ms at the fixation point, and control trials where no cue stimulus was presented. The results indicate that participants detected their mind wandering more often after the presentation of both supraliminal and subliminal cues than after control trials. Furthermore, Experiment 2, which used the probe-caught method for measuring mind wandering, found that the probabilities of mind wandering occurrences did not differ among the supraliminal, subliminal and control cue conditions. These findings suggest that abrupt external stimuli trigger awareness of mind wandering irrespective of awareness for cue presentations.
