Blink durations reflect mind wandering during reading

Mind wandering is a prevalent but highly subjective phenomenon that is difficult to measure. Typically studies use probes at random points throughout at study that pop in and ask participants “Are you mind wandering” where they indicate yes or no, and then resume the study. This study investigated a method of extracting eye blinks from raw eye tracking data while participants were reading texts that varied in degree of engagingness on a similar topic. Blink durations were found to increase for less engaging texts. We hypothesize that eye blink durations may increase with mind wandering and discuss implications for mind wandering research.