Mapping Mind Wandering to the “Self-Regulated Learning Process, Multimodal Data, and Analysis Grid”: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Abstract Attention is crucial for learners to enhance their learning and build knowledge. Sustaining prolonged attention requires students to self-regulate their behavioral, emotional, and cognitive processes. At the same time, learners engage in mind wandering approximately 30% of the time spent in educational activities, leading to a deterioration in learning outcomes. Despite its prevalence, the integration of mind-wandering research with self-regulated learning (SRL) frameworks remains limited. To address this gap, we first conceptually integrated research on mind wandering and SRL. Second, we assessed the extent to which this integration has been empirically explored by situating research on mind wandering during learning within the self-regulated learning process, multimodal data, and analysis (SMA) grid. To this end, we conducted a preregistered systematic literature review. We reviewed 134 studies from 2010 to 2024, analyzing the employed definitions of mind wandering, especially with regard to meta-awareness, the data streams used for measuring mind wandering, and whether mind wandering was investigated in relation to or in combination with cognitive, affective, metacognitive, and motivational (CAMM) SRL processes. Our analysis revealed that a significant number of studies have examined mind wandering alongside cognitive and metacognitive SRL processes and predominantly using self-report measures. An equal number of studies unobtrusively measured mind wandering through multimodal data streams (e.g., eye tracking, physiology, reaction time), with 27% utilizing machine learning (ML) techniques for assessment. However, most of these reports did not include SRL procedures and only a small number of studies used an integrated analytic approach, combining multimodal assessment and including SRL processes. Overall, affective and motivational processes received little to no attention. This review demonstrates how integrating research on mind wandering into established SRL frameworks can enhance our understanding of their complex interaction and role in the learning process. It revealed a blind spot in studying mind wandering in educational settings in conjunction with SRL processes using multimodal data streams, especially regarding affective and motivational SRL processes. Additionally, the results suggest that this integration can improve the effectiveness of real-time interventions based on automated mind-wandering detection in attention-aware learning technologies, thereby supporting SRL.

Topics & Concepts