Daniel Smilek

Revisiting the relation between oral contraceptive use and attentional engagement in everyday life: The role of formulation

Oral contraceptives (OCs) are composed of artificial estrogen (ethinyl-estradiol) and/or progesterone (progestin), which can attach to receptors in the brain and potentially influence cognition. One prior study suggested that OC use was associated with increased mind-wandering –...

Are individual differences in “unconstrained thought” meaningfully distinct from spontaneous and deliberate mind wandering?

Here, we developed the Unconstrained Thought Questionnaire (UTQ) to assess the dynamics of unconstrained thought (or ‘mind wandering’), as described by the Dynamic Framework. We aimed to determine whether the UTQ’s measure of unconstrained thought provides unique explanatory powe...

Switching between a computer monitor and virtual reality to reduce the sustained attention decrement

Abstract The present study examined whether changing presentation context can restore sustained attention during monotonous tasks. Participants (N = 164) completed a sustained attention task (i.e., the visual metronome response task) with stimuli presented either on a computer mo...