Public Release: 

More than just 'zoning out' -- Exploring the cognitive processes behind mind wandering

Association for Psychological Science

It happens innocently enough: One minute you're sitting at your desk, working on a report, and the next minute you're thinking about how you probably need to do laundry and that you want to try the new restaurant down the street. Mind wandering is a frequent and common occurrence. And while mind wandering in certain situations - in class, for example - can be counterproductive, some research suggests that mind wandering isn't necessarily a bad thing.


Inspired by Distraction: Mind Wandering Facilitates Creative Incubation


Corresponding author: Benjamin Baird - University of California, Santa Barbara -

Published online in Psychological Science

What Mind Wandering Reveals About Executive-Control Abilities and Failures


Corresponding author: Michael Kane - University of North Carolina at Greensboro -

Published in Current Directions in Psychological Science


Our working memory acts as a sort of mental workspace that allows us to juggle multiple thoughts simultaneously, but what role does it play in mind wandering? Does working memory inhibit or support off-task thinking? Psychological scientist Daniel Levinson and colleagues decided to put this issue to the test. They asked volunteers to perform one of two simple tasks -- either pressing a button in response to the appearance of a certain letter on a screen, or simply tapping in time with one's breath -- and compared people's propensity to drift off. In both tasks, people with higher working memory capacity reported more mind wandering during the tasks, even though their performance on the test wasn't compromised. But when the volunteers were given a comparably simple task that was filled with sensory distractors, the relationship between working memory and mind wandering disappeared. These results suggest that working memory may ultimately reflect underlying priorities, enabling off-topic thoughts when we don't have many other things to keep in mind.

Corresponding author: Daniel Levinson - University of Wisconsin-Madison -

Published in Psychological Science



While moments for reflection may be hard to come by, some research suggests that the long-lost art of introspection -- from mind wandering to focused reflection -- may be an increasingly valuable part of life. In this article, psychological scientist Mary Helen Immordino-Yang and colleagues survey the existing scientific literature from neuroscience and psychological science, exploring what it means when our brains are 'at rest.' Immordino-Yang and her colleagues believe that research on the brain at rest can yield important insights into the importance of reflection and quiet time for learning.

Corresponding author: Mary Helen Immordino-Yang - University of Southern California -

Published in Perspectives on Psychological Science


