Theory 85/Mind wandering/Rate lens
Wandering Follows Task Rate
The claim
Mind wandering becomes frequent when the rate of task demand falls below the rate at which attention decays, so a slow task loses attention faster than a hard one.
01Mechanism
Attention needs engagement to stay on task; when demands arrive slowly, the default network takes over.
02Prediction
Wandering should track the demand rate.
03Refutation
Wandering tracking task difficulty would remove the rate.