Mind-wandering, or the shifting of attention away from a task toward unrelated thoughts, is a common part of everyday experience. However, researchers still debate how short-term stress affects both the likelihood of mind-wandering and the kinds of thoughts people experience when their attention drifts. Prior research has found conflicting evidence, with some studies finding that acute stress can narrow focus and keep attention on task, while others suggest that stress may actually increase distracting thoughts, especially those that are negative, self-focused, or future-oriented. To address this discrepancy, the present study assessed the number and nature of participants' task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs) during a sustained attention task following either a high- or low-stress induction.
Theories that attribute instances of mind-wandering to failures of executive control predict that stress will increase TUTs due to fewer cognitive resources available for the primary task. However, theories of perceptual decoupling argue that stress may not increase the rate of TUTs, but will affect the nature of these thoughts to be more retrospective and stress-related. By assessing these contrasting predictions, the present study will advance our current understanding of mind-wandering.