{"id":1432,"date":"2016-12-17T20:05:23","date_gmt":"2016-12-17T20:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=1432"},"modified":"2017-12-31T16:07:45","modified_gmt":"2017-12-31T16:07:45","slug":"drifting-away-the-cognitive-benefits-and-perils-of-mind-wandering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/drifting-away-the-cognitive-benefits-and-perils-of-mind-wandering\/","title":{"rendered":"Drifting Away: The Cognitive Benefits\u2014and Perils\u2014of Mind-Wandering"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AdobeStock_58248806_Credit\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You\u2019re in the middle of a meeting or driving to work and your mind drifts off to\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026chores on your to-do list, or<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026a recent argument with a friend, or<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026the grand possibilities of your future life.<\/span><\/p>\n

You may not even realize you\u2019ve departed on this train of thought until a friend or coworker quips: \u201cEarth to Kevin, are you with us?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

During lectures in high school and college, or while trying to complete a dense reading assignment, I often caught myself failing to pay attention to my immediate environment. Much of the time, I would snap out of this state with the rude awakening that I had no idea what the professor was saying, or even what the last page of text said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, however, I\u2019ve started to wonder if there are benefits to mind wandering, especially for learning.<\/span><\/p>\n

For instance, absorbed in my internal world on long solo car trips, I have come up with creative ideas for beginning a blog post. Many of us are familiar with the experience of coming to insights about a tough problem while engaging in a completely unrelated activity.<\/span><\/p>\n

(The most common place I\u2019ve heard of this happening is in the shower, although I still don\u2019t understand why this is the preferred location for these \u201cah ha\u201d moments; alas, the research doesn\u2019t seem to offer an explanation for this).<\/span><\/p>\n

Do my anecdotal observations hold any elements of truth? What do researchers say about the impact of mind wandering on classroom learning? I\u2019ll explore these questions and more in the following sections.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is Mind-Wandering?<\/b><\/p>\n

Researchers generally define mind-wandering as a state of \u201cdecoupled attention,\u201d where attention is focused inward on self-generated thought instead of on the outside world. \u00a0Of course, one does not need to be aware of mind-wandering to be mind-wandering. <\/span><\/p>\n

(As an ironic side note, the potential for unaware mind-wandering makes mind-wandering challenging to study\u2014especially because those who are less aware of their mind-wandering tend to mind-wander more. [1])<\/span><\/p>\n

Importantly, mind-wandering isn\u2019t a passive state as it may seem from the outside. Instead, it can consist of racing thoughts, deep consideration, and interesting associations. Emotionally, these self-generated thoughts can have a positive or negative valence, and thus even have implications for pathologies like depression. [1]<\/span><\/p>\n

Benefits of Mind-Wandering<\/b><\/p>\n

From an evolutionary perspective, it seems logical that mind-wandering must have served a functional, adaptive purpose. After all, given how widespread a phenomenon mind-wandering is, it would not have developed or endured if it always harmed, never benefitted, the species.<\/span><\/p>\n

In their review of the mind-wandering literature [1], Jonathan Smallwood and Jonathan Schooler suggest several benefits of mind-wandering, including <\/span>prospection<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>creativity<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

1)<\/span> Prospection<\/span><\/p>\n

Often when people mind-wander, they contemplate situations that they might encounter in the future. For instance, a student trying to study the night prior to a big test may be distracted by thoughts of their parents\u2019 or teacher\u2019s reaction to a poor grade.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though this student may be distracted by such future-focused thoughts, this prospection might also offer real benefits. For example, the student might suddenly realize that, if she fails the test, the teacher will offer test corrections and extra-help. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That is, prospective mind wandering can produce beneficial insights.<\/span><\/p>\n

2) Creativity<\/span><\/p>\n

There has been a lot of discussion in media and education circles lately about designing learning and schooling to promote creativity (see Sir Ken Robinson\u2019s famous<\/span> TED talk<\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

Some studies have suggested that mind-wandering can do just that.<\/span><\/p>\n

For instance, Baird and colleagues [2] gave participants an everyday object\u2014such as a brick\u2014and asked them to think of as many potential uses for it as they could in 2 minutes. Researchers then gave some participants the opportunity to mind-wander, while preventing others from doing so. All participants then repeated their initial assignment: they had two minutes to think of distinct ways to use a brick.<\/span><\/p>\n

Baird\u2019s first key finding: during the second round, participants who mind-wandered during a mindless task thought of more ways to use a brick than those who had no chance to do so. That is: this mind-wandering promoted creativity. <\/span><\/p>\n

Baird\u2019s second key finding is perhaps more surprising. When mind-wanderers tried to think of uses for a <\/span>new<\/b> everyday object (a shovel rather than a brick), they were no better than those who did not mind-wander.<\/span><\/p>\n

In short, Baird\u2019s study suggests that mind-wandering boosts creativity <\/span>in the middle of a cognitive process<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>not<\/i><\/b> before it<\/span><\/i>. Teachers who plan to promote mind-wandering should keep this scheduling note in mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perils of Mind-Wandering: Reading Difficult Texts<\/b><\/p>\n

Mind-wandering might benefits student with prospection and creativity, but it includes clear hazards as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a 2013 study [3], researchers Shi Feng, Sidney D\u2019Mello, and Art Graesser investigated mind-wandering and its relationship to reading comprehension.<\/span><\/p>\n

Interestingly, they found that participants mind-wandered more while reading difficult texts than they did while reading simpler ones.<\/span><\/p>\n

(This result is somewhat contradictory to some theories of mind-wandering. Reading difficult texts obviously requires working memory, and some researchers believe that mind-wandering needs excess working memory resources to take place.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Feng hypothesized that readers of complex material could not build a deep and coherent picture of the text\u2019s structure; in other words, they could not form a \u201csituation model\u201d that explained why events occurred or how a process worked.<\/span><\/p>\n

In brief: text difficulty promotes mind-wandering, which in turn weakens the reader\u2019s mental model and thereby reduces understanding. <\/span><\/p>\n

This hypothesis helps explain my past experiences struggling to understand difficult information in history textbooks, or in a James Joyce story. Growing up dyslexic, I struggled with reading at its most fundamental level. To add to my woes, I would also find myself mindlessly tracking down a page\u2026only to realize that the chores I was thinking about had nothing to do with the Joyce story I was supposed to be understanding.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is there anything I could have done to curb my wandering mind and finally appreciate the literary genius of <\/span>Dubliners<\/span><\/i> without interruption?<\/span><\/p>\n

How to Stay Focused<\/b><\/p>\n

One intervention that seems to be promising is <\/span>mindfulness training<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a study by Mrazek and colleagues [4], participants completed either a two-week mindfulness program or a two-week nutrition class. Compared to those in the control condition, participants who meditated saw less mind-wandering, and enhanced performance on both reading and working memory tasks.<\/span><\/p>\n

The authors hypothesized that the mindfulness intervention increased their ability to focus on the task at hand and suppress distracting thoughts [4]. With the numerous other benefits to meditation, it\u2019s definitely worth a try!<\/span><\/p>\n

(You might check out the many mindfulness<\/span> posts<\/span><\/a> by my Learning and the Brain blogging colleague, Rina Deshpande.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Message for Education<\/b><\/p>\n

So should we worry about that student who is mind-wandering during a lesson or while trying to read a difficult novel? The research seems to suggest that we should – especially during difficult problem-solving or reading.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, some research also suggests that we should also recognize the value of task-unrelated, introspective thought, especially when either prospection or creativity will benefit learning [1].<\/span><\/p>\n

We might also let students know that there is value in taking a break by stepping away from a project to do something less demanding: cooking a meal, or walking the dog. [2]<\/span><\/p>\n

With the right blend of external focus and self-generated thought, our students can harness the benefits of mind-wandering while also staying focused at the right times to integrate and understand new information.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Smallwood, J., & Schooler, J. W. (2015). The science of mind wandering: empirically navigating the stream of consciousness. Annual review of psychology, 66, 487-518. [<\/span>Article<\/span><\/a>]<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Baird, B., Smallwood, J., Mrazek, M. D., Kam, J. W., Franklin, M. S., & Schooler, J. W. (2012). Inspired by distraction mind wandering facilitates creative incubation. Psychological Science. [<\/span>Article<\/span><\/a>]<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Feng, S., D\u2019Mello, S., & Graesser, A. C. (2013). Mind wandering while reading easy and difficult texts. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 20(3), 586-592. [<\/span>Article<\/span><\/a>]<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Mrazek, M. D., Franklin, M. S., Phillips, D. T., Baird, B., & Schooler, J. W. (2013). Mindfulness training improves working memory capacity and GRE performance while reducing mind wandering. Psychological Science. [<\/span>Article<\/span><\/a>] <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    You\u2019re in the middle of a meeting or driving to work and your mind drifts off to\u2026 \u2026chores on your to-do list, or \u2026a recent argument with a friend, or \u2026the grand possibilities of your future life. You may not even realize you\u2019ve departed on this train of thought until a friend or coworker quips: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":1473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[60],"class_list":["post-1432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-mind-wandering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1432"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1437,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432\/revisions\/1437"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}