The Influences Of Mind Wandering On Incubation Effect

The incubation effect is a phenomenon in the process of solving problems.If a dilemma is encountered,the problem can be temporarily shelved and entered the incubation stage,and then it will promote the solution of the problem.Mind wandering refers to the individual’s attention shifting from the current task when completing a task,and spontaneously generating some inner thoughts,illusions,or sensory thoughts that are not related to the task.Different from previous studies focusing on the negative effects of mind wandering,this paper focuses on the positive effects of mind wandering and discusses the relationship between mind wandering and incubation effects.Considering that the interpolating task type and load will affect the frequency of mind wandering and incubation effect respectively,this paper proposes that due to the different interpolating task type and load,the influence of the mind wandering on the incubation effect will also be different.In order to test this hypothesis,three behavioral experiments were designed.Among them,experiment 1 controls the type of interpolation task and examines the relationship between the frequency of individual’s mind wandering and the incubation effect under different conditions of task load.And whether individuals have differences in the frequency of mind wandering and incubation effect.The target task of the experiment is Alternate Use Task,and the interpolation task is computational tasks of working memory(high load and low load).We use within-subjects of design.The incubation conditions include high load incubation,low load incubation,and no incubation.The experimental results show that the interpolation task load affects the relationship between the frequency of mind wandering and the incubation effect.Under the low load conditions,the individual’s unique incubation results and fluency incubation results are significantly positively related to the frequency of mind wandering,which supports the conscious processing theory.When the cognitive load of interpolation task is low,the incubation effect is strongest.Due to the small number of subjects,the effect of interpolation task cognitive load on the frequency of mind wandering was not significant,and there was no significant difference in the frequency of mind wandering under low and high cognitive load conditions.Experiment 2 controls the load of interpolation tasks and investigates the relationship between the frequency of individual’s mind wandering and the incubation effect under different task types,and whether there are differences in the frequency of mind wandering and incubation effects of individuals.The target task of the experiment is Alternate Use Task,the interpolation task is perception task and thinking task,and the load of the control task is the same.We use within-subjects of design.The incubation conditions are perceptual incubation,thinking incubation and no incubation.The results show that task type has no significant influence on the relationship between the frequency of mind wandering and the incubation effect.The individual is engaged in perceptual task and thinking task in the incubation stage,and there is no significant difference in the incubation effect.The interpolation task type also does not affect the mind wandering frequency.Experiment 3 investigates the relationship between the frequency of individual’s mind wandering and the incubation effect when the load and type of interpolation tasks are different,and whether there are differences in the frequency of mind wandering and incubation effect.The target task of the experiment is Alternate Use Task,the interpolation task is perception task,speech task,and thinking task,and the load of the three tasks gradually increases.We use within-subjects of design.The incubation conditions include perceptual incubation,speech incubation,thinking incubation and no incubation.The experimental results show that the interpolation task load affects the relationship between the frequency of mind wandering and the incubation effect.When the interpolation task is a higher load thinking task,the individual’s unique incubation results and fluency incubation results are all negatively related to the frequency of wandering,which tends to support the unconscious processing theory;When the interpolation task is the lowest load perception task,the individual’s mind wandering frequency is the highest.To sum up,this paper concludes that:(1)Incubation is a complex process,which is composed of conscious process and unconscious process.(2)The effect of mind wandering on the incubation effect is affected by the load of the interpolation task.When the load of the interpolation task is low,the mind wandering and incubation effects are significantly positive,which supports the conscious processing theory.When the load of interpolation tasks is high,there is significant negative correlation between mind wandering and incubation effect,which provides evidence support for unconscious machining theory.(3)The type of interpolation task does not affect the relationship between mind wandering and incubation effects.