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Sustained attention and the experience of flow

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Abstract

The state of flow—often referred to as being “in the zone”—is characterized by the experience of deep, effortless concentration on the activity one is engaged in. While much of the flow literature seems to imply a tight link between flow and attention processes, relatively little work has assessed this question empirically. In the present study, we explored how the experience of flow relates to behavioural performance on the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART). Flow was indexed at the state level using thought-probes and at the trait level via questionnaires. The main finding was that those who experienced more state-level flow during the SART made fewer commission errors during the task, indicating that flow is linked to better sustained attention. Interestingly, the correlation between flow and sustained attention performance was found to increase in the second half of the task. While trait flow was not related to SART performance, it was found to be predictive of state flow during the task, such that those who tended to experience higher levels of flow in their everyday lives also experienced more flow during the experiment.

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Availability of data and materials

Raw data for the study and analysis scripts (RMarkdown files) are available on the Open Science Framework Repository. HTML files which present the code and results are available as well. The analyses files and associated data are available at: https://osf.io/cgvfk/.

Code availability

R code used to analyze the data is available on OSF.

Notes

  1. Clearly, the authors’ findings support the conclusion that flow is not related to intelligence. However, it is less clear that the same measures can be interpreted as measures of ‘effortful’ or ‘sustained’ attention.

  2. We do not mean to imply that intelligence and sustained attention abilities are orthogonal—merely that there are other available metrics which are perhaps better suited for assessing sustained attention (i.e. that have been designed specifically to assess sustained attention abilities) than an intelligence test.

  3. Following the completion of the d2 test, participants completed four five-minute blocks of Raven’s Matrices and reported their experience of flow after each block. However, the authors did not report the correlation between the experience of state flow and performance on the Raven’s matrices.

  4. There were two participant who either declined to answer or left the question blank.

  5. Four participants from Sample 1 and six participants from Sample 2 removed their earmuffs at some point during the experiment and are noted in the associated R script. These participants are included in all our analyses.

  6. Including the 97 participants who participated in the laboratory portion of the study.

  7. Indeed, this further highlights the importance of assessing sustained attention in longer task than had been used in prior studies.

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Funding

This work was supported by an NSERC Discovery Grant (RGPIN-2019–04071) awarded to Daniel Smilek and an Ontario Graduate Scholarship awarded to Jeremy Marty-Dugas.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    Jeremy Marty-Dugas, Laura Howes & Daniel Smilek

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  1. Jeremy Marty-Dugas
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  2. Laura Howes
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  3. Daniel Smilek
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Contributions

JMD, DS & LH originated the idea for the study. JMD & LH collected data for the study. JMD analysed the data. JMD & DS wrote the manuscript. All three authors have read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jeremy Marty-Dugas.

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This study was been reviewed and received ethic clearance through a University of Waterloo Research Ethics Committee and was performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki.

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All participants provided informed consent prior to participating.

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Appendix—DEC Probe

Appendix—DEC Probe

STOP!

Please indicate how often you had each of the following experiences during the game since the last time this screen appeared:

  1. (1)

    I was able to completely focus without straining to pay attention

    • 1 – Never 2 3 4 5 6 7 – Always

  2. (2)

    I seemed to reach a level of deep focus almost effortlessly

    • 1 – Never 2 3 4 5 6 7 – Always

  3. (3)

    I got in the zone and didn’t have to force myself to concentrate

    • 1 – Never 2 3 4 5 6 7 – Always

Use the mouse to click a number on the scale. A green box will appear around the number you click. When you have answered all the questions, press the 'g' key to begin the next round.

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Marty-Dugas, J., Howes, L. & Smilek, D. Sustained attention and the experience of flow. Psychological Research 85, 2682–2696 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-020-01433-x

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