A mind that wanders: what experience sampling found

Step 1 Warm-up recall

From Module 2: what is a confounder, and what is reverse causation? Write one sentence for each.

Your answer

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Step 2 Learning goal

By the end of this lesson you can:

• describe experience sampling and the main findings of Killingsworth and Gilbert (2010) (Foundation);
• calculate the share of prompts in which the mind was elsewhere (Core);
• say what the study can and cannot show about cause (Core).

Step 3 A familiar example

You read a page and reach the bottom without remembering any of it. Your eyes moved; your mind did not come with them. Almost everyone has done this, which makes it a good subject for measurement.

Step 4 Clear explanation

Mind-wandering is attention drifting from the task in hand to other thoughts. To study it in daily life, Killingsworth and Gilbert (2010) used experience sampling: an iPhone app contacted volunteers at random moments and asked how happy they were, what they were doing and whether they were thinking about something else.

The sample was 2,250 volunteers, giving about 250,000 reports. Minds were elsewhere for 46.9% of reports. Mind-wandering was usually linked to lower happiness. Time-lag analyses, which compare thoughts at one moment with happiness at the next, suggested that mind-wandering generally came before unhappiness rather than the reverse. The authors presented this as a suggestion, not proof.

Why only a suggestion? Participants were not randomly assigned to wander. They were volunteers using an app, who may differ from other people. The finding is a strong, well-known observational result, not a trial.

Step 5 Worked example (4 marks)

In an invented replication, a student is prompted 40 times at random moments and reports mind-wandering on 18.

1. Share = 18 ÷ 40. (1 mark)
2. 18 ÷ 40 = 0.45, so 45%. (1 mark)
3. That is close to the 46.9% reported by Killingsworth and Gilbert. (1 mark)
4. One student’s 40 prompts cannot test the finding: the sample is tiny and the person is not typical of the original volunteers. (1 mark)

Step 6 Learner practice (instant-marked)

Step 7 Recap

• Experience sampling asks about thoughts and feelings at random moments.
• Killingsworth and Gilbert (2010): 2,250 volunteers, about 250,000 reports, minds elsewhere 46.9% of the time, usually linked to lower happiness.
• Time-lag analyses suggest direction but do not prove cause.

Step 8 Exit ticket (ungraded)

Over the next hour, notice three times your mind has left what you are doing. Where did it go, and how did you feel? Write what you noticed, in a few words.

What you noticed

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Step 9 Go further (Extension)

Read the abstract of Killingsworth and Gilbert (2010) in Science. Note how they defined mind-wandering, and name two limits they or later commentators raise.