When Attention Meets Distraction in Online Comprehension

Comprehension requires attending to relevant information while ignoring irrelevant information and distractions. The relation between comprehension and attention is well known but the mechanisms underlying that relationship are a question of research. Attention during online research can be assessed with attention checks or self-reported distractions. This study examined whether, during comprehension, objective attention checks and self-reported distractions are related, and their role in comprehension performance. Participants were 237 psychology students who completed the tasks remotely and unsupervised. While they read text or watched videos, they were interrupted five times, when they had to report their mental state related to mind wandering, and complete attention checks (answering about literal content). Mental state responses included task related thoughts, task unrelated thoughts, external distraction, and mind blanking; distraction was computed by combining the latter three. Attention checks were negatively associated with distraction (β=−.24,p<.001) and positively with comprehension (β=.28,p<.001), whereas distraction was negatively associated with comprehension (β=−.20, p=.002). Mediation analysis showed that distraction partially mediated the association between attention checks and comprehension (indirect effect =.048, p=.003;14.6% mediated). These findings highlight the role of attentional fluctuations in online learning and the usefulness of attention checks.