Relationship between workload and mind-wandering in simulated driving
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0176962
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Summary
This study investigates the relationship between mental workload and mind-wandering during simulated driving, addressing a gap in understanding how these two critical factors for driving safety interact. Motivated by the load theory of attention, which posits that spare cognitive capacity may lead to internal distractions, the researchers examined whether higher workload reduces mind-wandering due to limited resources, or if the relationship changes over time as fatigue sets in. The experiment involved 40 licensed drivers who performed a car-following task in a driving simulator for 25 minutes. Participants maintained a 20-meter distance from a lead vehicle traveling at 80 km/h. Mind-wandering was measured using a probe-caught method, where participants reported their mental state upon hearing a tone every minute. Mental workload was assessed from two perspectives: individual differences ("Workload-I"), measured via the NASA-Task Load Index (TLX) after the task, and temporal changes ("Workload-T"), measured through primary-task performance metrics such as standard deviation of lane position (SDLP), steering wheel movements (SDSTW), foot operations (SDFO), and distance (SDD). The results revealed an interaction between workload and mind-wandering depending on the perspective. From an individual difference perspective, there was a significant negative correlation ($r = -0.459, p < 0.01$) between reported workload and the total number of mind-wandering incidents. Drivers who reported higher workload experienced fewer instances of mind-wandering, supporting the hypothesis that high task demand consumes cognitive resources, leaving little capacity for internal distraction. Conversely, from a temporal perspective, both workload indicators and mind-wandering frequency increased significantly over the course of the task. Performance measures like SDLP, SDSTW, and SDFO showed significant upward trends, indicating deteriorating control and increased effort over time. Mind-wandering frequency also rose significantly, and these temporal workload measures were positively correlated with mind-wandering frequency (e.g., SDLP $r = 0.622$; SDSTW $r = 0.695$ after outlier removal). These findings suggest that the relationship between workload and mind-wandering is complex. While high individual workload suppresses mind-wandering by consuming available cognitive capacity, prolonged engagement in a monotonous task leads to increased mind-wandering and perceived workload due to vigilance decrements and the need for state-related effort to maintain performance. This study highlights the importance of considering both individual differences and temporal dynamics when assessing driving safety and cognitive load.
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 3 | 2026-08-10 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| enrich | success | semantic_scholar | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-nvidia | summ-v5 | 2 | 2026-08-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 10 | 2026-08-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-08-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-nvidia on 2026-08-10; verification: verified.
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