I.D.E.A. LAB

Michael Kane's I.D.E.A. Lab at UNC Greensboro investigates individual differences in executive attention using experimental, psychometric, and experience-sampling methods. 

Our goal is to advance the scientific understanding of:

• 1. how people control their attention, especially in selectively focusing in the face of external or internal distractions

  2. the consequences of attention-control failures for learning, thinking, and acting in goal-directed ways

Recently, the lab's focus has been on individual differences in the experience of mind wandering, in both laboratory and daily-life settings. We have been testing the idea that one contributor to off-task thought (among many) is a momentary failure of executive attention.

Find information on our research projects, including data, at Michael Kane's OSF page