Society for College and University Planning
Discovering the Virtues of a Wandering Mind
Did you know that your mind is "wandering" about 30 percent of the time you are awake? No wonder things get dangerous when you add driving and cell phone into the mix! And there really is a scientific term: "zoning out." Read more.
You’d be stuck contemplating the mass of idling cars, a mental exercise that is much less pleasant than dreaming about a beach and much less useful than mulling what to do once you get off the road. There’s an evolutionary advantage to the brain’s system of mind wandering, says Eric Klinger, a psychologist at the University of Minnesota and one of the pioneers of the field.
“While a person is occupied with one task, this system keeps the individual’s larger agenda fresher in mind,” Dr. Klinger writes in the “Handbook of Imagination and Mental Simulation”. “It thus serves as a kind of reminder mechanism, thereby increasing the likelihood that the other goal pursuits will remain intact and not get lost in the shuffle of pursuing many goals.”
Of course, it’s often hard to know which agenda is most evolutionarily adaptive at any moment.
Labels: mind, daydreaming, mind wandering, creativity, Innovation, Learning