Fig. 2

a The parallel mediation model examining how motivation and focus back effort jointly mediated the relationship between interest and mind wandering. b The structural equation model investigating the sequential mediation of motivation and focus back effort in the association between interest and mind wandering. The contribution of each latent variable to the other is represented by a single-headed arrow from one latent variable (circle) to another. Solid paths indicate significant relationships at p < 0.05, while dotted lines indicate non-significant relationships at p < 0.05. To simplify the interpretation, the factor loadings of manifest variables have been excluded from the illustration and can be found in Additional file 1: Table S7