Abstract: Objective To investigate the impact of mind wandering in sustained attention response task, and offer interventions to cope with mind wandering. Methods In December, 2016, a total of 37 athletes were tested with sustained attention response task. Their technical index, reaction time variation and accurate rate were calculated. Results The statistics of 25 athletes showed that, the technical index was lower in complex task than in simple task (t(35)=-8.019, P<0.001). No significant difference was found in the reaction time variation between two tasks (t(23)=-1.575, P=0.129), the main effect of mind wandering was not significant (F(1,23)=0.488, P=0.492), as well as the interaction of mind wandering and task difficulty (F(1,23)=0.054, P=0.262). No significant difference was found in the accurate rate between two tasks (t(23)=-1.046, P=0.307), the main effect of mind wandering was not significant (F(1,23)=0.119, P=0.733), and the interaction of mind wandering and task difficulty was marginal significance (F(1,23)=3.608, P=0.070). Conclusion Athlete's mind wandering with awareness would influence the performance in complex sustained attention response task. Mindfulness training and tasks engagement could effectively cope with mind wandering.

Key words: mind wandering, performance, intervention