Costs and Benefits of Mind Wandering in a Technological Setting: Findings and Implications

The central purpose of this dissertation is to develop and test a theoretical model of mind wandering in a technological setting by integrating the emerging work and theory on mind wandering—a shift of attention from the primary task to the processing of internal goals. This dissertation is intended to advance our understanding on the costs and benefits of mind wandering in information systems (IS) research and in turn, contribute to the literature of cognitive IS research. Understanding the consequences of mind wandering in a technological setting is imperative because mind wandering plays a vital role in influencing various outcomes associated with technology use and/or technology learning, such as technology anxiety, software self-efficacy, and task performance. This dissertation is composed of three essays which examine the determinants and consequences of mind wandering and focus of attention on a number of emotional and cognitive outcomes. A multi-method approach (i.e., online survey and laboratory experiment) across three essays is used to test the research models. Essay 1 focuses on developing the measurement items and estimating the impact of mind wandering on users' emotional outcomes (i.e., technology anxiety and users' satisfaction). Drawing upon the content regulation hypothesis of mind wandering, the content of thoughts are differentiated into two categories—technology-related thought (herein IT) and non-technology related thought (herein non-IT). The results show that whereas mind wandering (non-IT) is a major determinant of technology anxiety, focus of attention (IT) is the main predictor of users' satisfaction. Essay 2 focuses on the effect of mind wandering and focus of attention in the IS learning context. The study begins by exploring the hypotheses concerning the roles of executive functions (i.e., inhibition, switching, and working memory) and task complexity in influencing the occurrence of mind wandering and focus of attention, and in turn, cognitive outcomes (i.e., software self-efficacy and learning performance). Essay 2 integrates the use of psychological testing to measure executive functions and self-report to measure mind wandering and focus of attention. The interaction effects between mind wandering and focus of attention are also tested. The findings reveal that the costs and benefits of mind wandering in IS learning depend, in part, upon its content, whether it's technology-related or non-technology-related. Specifically, the results suggest that the congruence between the content of mind wandering experience and focus of attention determines the outcomes of such experience. Essay 3 examines the extent to which individuals' focus of attention and mind wandering influence IS decision making performance at different levels of task complexity. The research model is tested using a laboratory experiment in the context of B2C e-commerce. Drawing upon unconscious thought theory and executive control theory of mind wandering, the results show that under a low task complexity condition, focus of attention and mind wandering do not have any significant effects on performance accuracy. Under a medium task complexity condition, focus of attention leads to higher performance accuracy, but mind wandering does not have a significant effect on performance accuracy. However, under high task complexity, both focus of attention and mind wandering lead to higher performance accuracy. Mind wandering also negatively influences performance efficiency under all levels of IS task complexity.