Abstract
Although mind wandering during reading is known to be affected by text difficulty, the nature of this relationship is not yet fully understood. To examine this issue, we conducted an experiment in which participants read non-fiction texts that varied along five levels of difficulty under naturalistic conditions. Difficulty levels were determined based on Flesch–Kincaid Grade Levels and verified with Coh–Metrix indices. Mind wandering was measured with thought probes. We predicted that text difficulty and mind wandering have a U-shaped (i.e., quadratic) relationship. Contrary to our expectations, but in line with some prior studies, mind wandering linearly increased with text difficulty. Additionally, text interest moderated the effect of text difficulty on mind wandering. Finally, mind wandering was associated with worse performance on a comprehension test. Together, our findings extend previous work by showing that (a) a linear relationship between difficulty and mind wandering exists during common page-by-page reading of pre-existing texts and that (b) this relationship holds across a broad range of difficulty levels.
Highlights
Text difficulty effects on mind wanderingWhen people’s mind wanders while reading, their mind is not fully processing the text; mind wandering hinders text comprehension (Broadway et al 2015; Feng et al 2013; Smallwood et al 2008; Soemer et al 2019; Unsworth and McMillan 2013)
Relationship between difficulty and mind wandering exists during natural, page-by-page reading
Our study suggests that this relationship holds across a large range of difficulty levels (i.e., 9 US grade levels)
Summary
When people’s mind wanders while reading, their mind is not fully processing the text; mind wandering hinders text comprehension (Broadway et al 2015; Feng et al 2013; Smallwood et al 2008; Soemer et al 2019; Unsworth and McMillan 2013). As students (regardless of their level) and employees (regardless of their tasks) often learn through reading, mind wandering can harm people’s educational and occupational career (Kane and McVay 2012; Lindquist and McLean 2011; Smallwood and Schooler 2015). We examine how text difficulty affects mind wandering. In the long run, we hope this research will contribute to the extent we can control mind wandering in applied settings.
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