The sustained attention to response task (SART) has been the primary method of studying the phenomenon of mind wandering. We develop and experimentally test the first integrated cognitive process model that quantitatively explains all stationary features of behavioral performance in the SART. The model assumes that performance is generated by a competitive race between a stimulus-related decision process and a stimulus-unrelated rhythmic response process. We propose that the stimulus-unrelated process entrains to timing regularities in the task environment, and is unconditionally triggered as a habit or 'insurance policy' to protect against the deleterious effects of mind wandering on ongoing task performance. For two SART experiments the model provided a quantitatively precise account of a range of previously reported trends in choice, response time and self-reported mind wandering data. It also accounted for three previously unidentified features of response time distributions that place critical constraints on cognitive models of performance in situations when people might engage in task-unrelated thoughts. Furthermore, the parameters of the rhythmic race model were meaningfully associated with participants' self-reported distraction, even though the model was never informed by these data. In a validation test, we disrupted the latent rhythmic component with a manipulation of inter-trial-interval variability, and showed that the architecture of the model provided insight into its counter-intuitive effect. We conclude that performance in the presence of mind wandering can be conceived as a competitive latent decision vs. rhythmic response process. We discuss how the rhythmic race model is not restricted to the study of distraction or mind wandering; it is applicable to any domain requiring repetitive responding where evidence accumulation is assumed to be an underlying principle of behavior.

中文翻译：

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模拟分心的表现

持续关注反应任务 (SART) 一直是研究走神现象的主要方法。我们开发并实验测试了第一个综合认知过程模型，该模型定量解释了 SART 中行为表现的所有平稳特征。该模型假设绩效是由刺激相关的决策过程和与刺激无关的节律反应过程之间的竞争产生的。我们建议与刺激无关的过程会导致任务环境中的时间规律，并作为一种习惯或“保险政策”无条件地触发，以防止走神对正在进行的任务表现产生有害影响。对于两个 SART 实验，该模型提供了一系列先前报告的选择趋势的定量精确说明，响应时间和自我报告的走神数据。它还解释了响应时间分布的三个以前未识别的特征，当人们可能从事与任务无关的想法时，这些特征对表现的认知模型施加了关键限制。此外，有节奏的种族模型的参数与参与者自我报告的分心有显着关联，即使模型从未被这些数据告知。在验证测试中，我们通过对试验间隔变异性的操纵来破坏潜在的节律成分，并表明该模型的架构提供了对其反直觉效应的洞察。我们得出的结论是，在存在走神的情况下的表现可以被认为是一种竞争性的潜在决策与节奏反应过程。我们讨论了有节奏的种族模型如何不限于分心或走神的研究；它适用于任何需要重复响应的领域，其中证据积累被认为是行为的基本原则。