title: The restless mind while driving: drivers' thoughts behind the wheel.
abstract: Recent research has clearly shown that inattention when driving has an indisputable impact on road safety. "Mind wandering" (MW), an inattentional state caused by a shift in attention from the ongoing task to inner thoughts, is not only frequent in everyday activities but also known to impact performance. There is a growing body of research investigating the concept of MW, suggesting potential causes that could foster such a phenomenon. Only one epidemiological study has focused on this issue in a critical driving context (Galéra et al., 2012), and it revealed the harmful effects of MW in increasing the risk of a car crash. Experimental studies rather consider that driver would adduce in MW (Lemercier et al., 2014). When the driving context is too hard or the thought too difficult to proceed, driver reduced their MW. The aim of this paper is to examine this issue using the most recent trip of ordinary drivers whose MW state did not lead to a road accident. Using a questionnaire, information was collected about the participants' most recent trip as a driver, including: (1) personal characteristics, (2) context in which MW occurs, (3) awareness of MW episodes and finally (4) characteristics of the thoughts.
  
  
  RESULTS
  revealed that MW affected 85.2% of the drivers, who spent on average 34.74% of their trip in a MW state. Moreover, we found that the contexts which favor MW are situations in which less of the driver's attention is needed to drive, such as familiar commutes, monotonous motorways or by-passes, or when drivers were alone in their cars. In these MW situations, the drivers quickly became aware of their MW episodes. Thoughts tend to involve neutral private concerns, related to present- or future-oriented content. Our findings suggest that MW is a functional state aiming to solve current problems. Future investigations should focus on this critical concept of MW when driving, both to identify safety issues and to provide suitable solutions for drivers subject to a wandering mind.
authors.affiliation: Université de Toulouse, France _ CLLE (Cognition, Langues, Langage et Ergonomie); UTM, EPHE, CNRS, 5 allées Antonio Machado, 31058 Toulouse Cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: Gaëlle
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Berthié
authors.affiliation: Université de Toulouse, France _ CLLE (Cognition, Langues, Langage et Ergonomie); UTM, EPHE, CNRS, 5 allées Antonio Machado, 31058 Toulouse Cedex 9, France. Electronic address: celine.lemercier@univ-tlse2.fr.
authors.forename: Céline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lemercier
authors.affiliation: Université de Toulouse, France _ CLLE (Cognition, Langues, Langage et Ergonomie); UTM, EPHE, CNRS, 5 allées Antonio Machado, 31058 Toulouse Cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: Pierre-Vincent
authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: Paubel
authors.affiliation: Continental, 1 Avenue Paul Ourliac, 31100 Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Maurice
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cour
authors.affiliation: IFSTTAR-TS2-LESCOT, Laboratoire Ergonomie et Sciences Cognitives pour les transports, 25 Avenue François Mitterrand Case 24, 69675 Bron, France.
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fort
authors.affiliation: INSERM, 146 rue Léo Saignat, Bâtiment TP Zone Sud 4ème étage, 33000 Bordeaux, France.
authors.forename: Cédric
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Galéra
authors.affiliation: INSERM, 146 rue Léo Saignat, Bâtiment TP Zone Sud 4ème étage, 33000 Bordeaux, France.
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lagarde
authors.affiliation: IFSTTAR-TS2-LESCOT, Laboratoire Ergonomie et Sciences Cognitives pour les transports, 25 Avenue François Mitterrand Case 24, 69675 Bron, France.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gabaude
authors.affiliation: Université Paris Sud Laboratoire de Mathématiques, bâtiment 425, Faculté des Sciences d'Orsay, Université Paris-Sud 11, 91405 Orsay, France.
authors.forename: Bertrand
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Maury
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001288:Attention; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001364:Awareness; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013850:Thinking; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Awareness; Content of thoughts; Emotional valence; Inattention; Off-task thoughts; Temporal focus