How Epistemic Affects, Curiosity, and Personality Are Associated With Mind Wandering: Evidence from a Health-related Three-Armed Bandit Task
type: CreativeWork
description: Objectives. This study investigated how mind wandering thoughts, and specifically the content of these thoughts, are associated with epistemic affects (i.e., epistemic emotions and epistemic feelings), trait curiosity, and personality in the context of an information search and comprehension task involving health-related questions and a three-armed bandit design. Studies have demonstrated that mind wandering is influenced by a range of cognitive measures; however, its relationship with epistemic affects, especially with regard to thought content, has not been investigated. Moreover, while previous studies have shown that trait curiosity and personality are related to mind wandering, none have investigated how these constructs influence the content of mind wandering thoughts. The goal of this study was to improve the current understanding on these gaps in knowledge. Methods. The study collected data on mind wandering and epistemic affects under a contextual bandit task design in which 52 participants answered a series of health-related questions. As part of the contextual bandit design, participants could draw information statements that may help with answering the question from three information sources that varied in scientific quality and relevance (which was not identified to them). The participants also reported on epistemic affects throughout the task, where familiarity with the topic was reported for each question, while usefulness, confidence in usefulness, clarity, and curiosity were reported for each information statement drawn. In a second online session, the study also collected data on various cognitive measures, including the five-dimensional curiosity and Big Five personality traits. Results and conclusions. The data analysis showed for the first time that epistemic affects are, in fact, deeply implicated in the kind of mind wandering thoughts a participant might experience (with effect sizes of around 0.2 SDs). In particular, it was found that when al…
abstract: Objectives. This study investigated how mind wandering thoughts, and specifically the content of these thoughts, are associated with epistemic affects (i.e., epistemic emotions and epistemic feelings), trait curiosity, and personality in the context of an information search and comprehension task involving health-related questions and a three-armed bandit design. Studies have demonstrated that mind wandering is influenced by a range of cognitive measures; however, its relationship with epistemic affects, especially with regard to thought content, has not been investigated. Moreover, while previous studies have shown that trait curiosity and personality are related to mind wandering, none have investigated how these constructs influence the content of mind wandering thoughts. The goal of this study was to improve the current understanding on these gaps in knowledge. Methods. The study collected data on mind wandering and epistemic affects under a contextual bandit task design in which 52 participants answered a series of health-related questions. As part of the contextual bandit design, participants could draw information statements that may help with answering the question from three information sources that varied in scientific quality and relevance (which was not identified to them). The participants also reported on epistemic affects throughout the task, where familiarity with the topic was reported for each question, while usefulness, confidence in usefulness, clarity, and curiosity were reported for each information statement drawn. In a second online session, the study also collected data on various cognitive measures, including the five-dimensional curiosity and Big Five personality traits. Results and conclusions. The data analysis showed for the first time that epistemic affects are, in fact, deeply implicated in the kind of mind wandering thoughts a participant might experience (with effect sizes of around 0.2 SDs). In particular, it was found that when al…
author: Dogra, Basil
language: eng
keywords: Mind Wandering, Epistemic Emotions, Epistemic Feelings, Affects, Trait Curiosity, Personality, Mind Wondering, Mind Wandering Thought Content, Positive On-task Deliberate mind wandering
date published: 2025-12-16
date modified: 2026-07-27T19:56:30Z
provider: University of Helsinki
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Helsingin yliopisto

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/10138/624864