Appendixes: Appendix A / Appendix B / Appendix C / Scripts
Mind-wandering questionnaire
This task lasts for two hours of your practice: one dedicated to an hour of technique, repetitive exercises, warm-ups (things that you do almost every day during your practice), and another hour dedicated to a new piece or recently started one that you are still figuring out.
First, download these apps:
-For iPhone, download “Random Reminder”
-For Android, download “RemindMe”
Set 10 notifications for one hour of practice. Your timer will stop you at random intervals during that hour*. Read the information below to know how to complete the questionnaire.
On/Off task:
While you are practicing, you may find yourself thinking about things other than your moment-to-moment experience during practice. These thoughts are referred to as “task-unrelated thoughts” or mind-wandering. Having task-unrelated thoughts is perfectly normal, monopolizing around 47 percent of our daily mental activity (Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010).
Throughout this task, I would like to determine how frequently you are focused on the task and how frequently you are thinking about thoughts that are unrelated to the task. To do this, *your timer will randomly stop 10 times during 1 hour, and, in each of the notifications, you will complete the first question of the questionnaire: “What were you thinking just now?”. You will circle 0 if you were thinking task-related thoughts, or thoughts “about the task you are doing at that exact moment”, such as body instructions (e.g., “round your pinky”), “images that represent the direction of the phrase”, “fingerings”, “bowings”, etc.… In short, practice-related thoughts. Conversely, you will circle 1 for task-unrelated thoughts, such as “I must stop by the supermarket on the way home”, “I made lots of mistakes at the beginning of this musical phrase.”, or “tomorrow I am playing in my audition and I am not ready…”, etc. That is practice-related thoughts.
Importantly, being focused on the task means that, just before the thought-sampling alarm set off, you were focused on some aspect of the task at hand. On the other hand, experiencing task-unrelated thoughts means that you were thinking about something completely unrelated to the task before the alarm. If distractions come from the outside (e.g. a strong noise coming from outside the room or someone abruptly entering your room) at the moment of responding, mark outside distraction (this does not count as mind-wandering). Following this, you will indicate whether the mind-wandering you were experiencing was deliberate or spontaneous. Spontaneous vs deliberate MW. Deliberate refers to distractions or thoughts to decide to stay with or to start thinking about and you are aware of. Spontaneous or unintentional refers to distractions and thoughts you were not aware you were having and thus not intentional.
Order of response
1. “Before practice” questions
2. “During practice” (on/off task and spontaneous or deliberate)
3. “After practice” questions
Questionnaire
Before practice:
a) Fatigue
-How did you sleep last night (1= bad; 10= excellent)?
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
b) Novelty
a) New piece b) technique
During practice:
-In each of the probes (10) (i.e., random notifications), please answer the following 2 questions:
1) On task (0) or off task (1)
1. 0(on task) outside distraction 1(off task)
2. 0 outside distraction 1
3. 0 outside distraction 1
4. 0 outside distraction 1
5. 0 outside distraction 1
6. 0 outside distraction 1
7. 0 outside distraction 1
8. 0 outside distraction 1
9. 0 outside distraction 1
10. 0 outside distraction 1
2) Spontaneous vs deliberate MW.
1. Spontaneous Deliberate
2. Spontaneous Deliberate
3. Spontaneous Deliberate
4. Spontaneous Deliberate
5. Spontaneous Deliberate
6. Spontaneous Deliberate
7. Spontaneous Deliberate
8. Spontaneous Deliberate
9. Spontaneous Deliberate
10. Spontaneous Deliberate
In those moments that you were intentionally mind-wandering, could you explain why you decided to do so?
After practice:
3) Motivation
¿How motivated were you during this session? (1=bored; 10=very motivated)
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
4) Worry
How worried were you during this session? (1= not worried at all, enjoying and flowing my practice, 10= very stressed)
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
5) Efficiency
How efficient do you think you were being in this session?
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.