TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2009//
TI  - Anatomy of an error: a bidirectional state model of task engagement/disengagement and attention-related errors
JO  - Cognition
A1  - Allan Cheyne, J.
A1  - Solman, Grayden J.F.
A1  - Carriere, Jonathan S.A.
A1  - Smilek, Daniel
SP  - 98
EP  - 113
VL  - 111
IS  - 1
N2  - We present arguments and evidence for a three-state attentional model of task engagement/disengagement. The model postulates three states of mind-wandering: occurrent task inattention, generic task inattention, and response disengagement. We hypothesize that all three states are both causes and consequences of task performance outcomes and apply across a variety of experimental and real-world tasks. We apply this model to the analysis of a widely used GO/NOGO task, the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART). We identify three performance characteristics of the SART that map onto the three states of the model: RT variability, anticipations, and omissions. Predictions based on the model are tested, and largely corroborated, via regression and lag-sequential analyses of both successful and unsuccessful withholding on NOGO trials as well as self-reported mind-wandering and everyday cognitive errors. The results revealed theoretically consistent temporal associations among the state indicators and between these and SART errors as well as with self-report measures. Lag analysis was consistent with the hypotheses that temporal transitions among states are often extremely abrupt and that the association between mind-wandering and performance is bidirectional. The bidirectional effects suggest that errors constitute important occasions for reactive mind-wandering. The model also enables concrete phenomenological, behavioral, and physiological predictions for future research.<p />
LA  - 
SN  - 0010-0277
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2008.12.009
ID  - ref1
ER  -