Task-unrelated thoughts are consistently associated with lower test performance, accounting for approximately 7% of the variation in learning outcomes¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Mind wandering is consistently negatively associated with test performance across tasks, subjects, and age groups, explaining about 7% of outcome variation. → Bühler 2025

Evidence¶

Bühler 2025¶

Bühler, B., Fütterer, T., von Keyserlingk, L., Bozkir, E., Kasneci, E., Gerjets, P., & Trautwein, U. (2025). Mapping Mind Wandering to the “Self-Regulated Learning Process, Multimodal Data, and Analysis Grid”: A Systematic Review. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-025-10041-3

q2 · i? · review · r3

The review reports, citing Wong et al. (2022), that task-unrelated thoughts show a consistent negative association with test performance, "accounting for approximately 7% of the variation in learning outcomes." The 7% figure is a variance proportion, not a standardized effect size.

"Task-unrelated thoughts are consistently associated with lower test performance across different tasks, subjects, and age groups, accounting for approximately 7% of the variation in learning outcomes"

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Attention — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes

Related Claims¶

• Learners engage in mind wandering approximately 30% of the time spent in educational activities, and this is associated with deteriorated learning outcomes — related
• Questions interpolated between video lecture segments improve subsequent test performance and reduce mind wandering — related
• Mind wandering can function as a resource for regulation when learners have metacognitive awareness of attentional shifts — reports the opposite