Task-unrelated thought increases after consumption of COVID-19 and general news

Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications

Table 1 Linear Regression Model Parameters for Predicting Task-Unrelated Thought from COVID-19 News Consumption (Study 1)

Predictors	β	b	SE	95% CI [LB, UB]	Χ² (1)	p
COVID-19 news	0.20	0.62	0.16	[0.30, 0.93]	14.30	< .001
Motivation	− 0.23	− 0.22	0.03	[− 0.28, − 0.17]	63.63	< .001
Day	0.03	0.01	0.01	[− 0.00, 0.03]	1.78	.183
COVID-19 news x motivation	− 0.14	− 0.13	0.05	[− 0.23, − 0.03]	7.11	.008

Note Rows present the effects of predictors on ratings of TUT (task-unrelated thought, 1 = completely on-task to 4 = completely off-task) from Study 1. Predictors included COVID-19 news (COVID-19-related news consumption, no COVID-19 news consumption as the reference category), task motivation (1 = not motivated at all to 5 = extremely motivated), and day (day-in-study from 1 to 10). The model also included a random effect of participant on the intercept. Analysis of variances was tested through Type III Wald chi-square tests. Model residuals passed assumptions of normality and homogeneity of variance
β standardized parameter, b unstandardized parameter, SE standard error of the estimate, 95% CI 95% confidence interval associated with the unstandardized parameter, UB upper bound, LB lower bound. Χ² (1) chi-squared test statistic associated with comparison between the current model and a null model without the predictor of interest (1 degree of freedom), p p-value associated with the chi-squared test statistic