Spontaneous repetitive thoughts can be adaptive
"Postscript on "mind wandering
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4423951 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Bernard J Baars (0000-0002-9497-6746, Neurosciences Institute, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 136 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 208-210 |
| Publication date | 2010-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Psychological Bulletin (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0033-2909 • E-ISSN: 1939-1455 |
| Publisher | American Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1037/a0018726 |
| PMID | 20192560 |
| OpenAlex | W2000297100 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 21 |
| References cited | 6 |
When researchers use the term mind wandering for task-unrelated thoughts in signal detection tasks, we may fall into the trap of believing that spontaneous thoughts are task unrelated in a deeper sense. Similar negative connotations are attached to common terms like cognitive failures, resting state, rumination, distraction, attentional failures, absent-mindedness, repetitiveness, mind lapses, going AWOL in the brain, cortical idling, and the like. Nevertheless, it seems obvious that mathematicians and scientists often engage in spontaneous repetitive thoughts and that the results of those thoughts are by no means maladaptive. Yet that seems to be implied by the standard use of common terms in the research literature. As humans, we know that spontaneous ideation goes on during all of our waking hours, during dreams and even in slow-wave sleep. It is unlikely that such a great allocation of mental resources has no useful adaptive function. This view of the spontaneous stream is consistent with the perspective of global workspace theory on conscious contents, which suggests that conscious events are not like unconscious cognitive representations. Rather, conscious events trigger widespread adaptive changes in the brain, far beyond their cortical origins. The brain evidence for such "global broadcasting" triggered by conscious (but not matched unconscious) events throughout the cortex is now quite compelling. Spontaneous conscious thoughts, even if they appear to be arbitrary, irrelevant, unwanted, or intrusive, may still play an important adaptive role in life-relevant problem solving and learning
Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Cognitive science · Distraction · Mind-wandering · Perspective (graphical) · Psychoanalysis · Rumination · Unconscious mind · Mind wandering and attention · Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies · Neuroscience · Psychology · Sleep and Wakefulness Research
Bridging the communication and cultural gap between the cognitive sciences and the contemplative traditions
Mindfulness and mind-wandering
Not all minds that wander are lost
The costs and benefits of mind-wandering
Why does working memory capacity predict variation in reading comprehension? On the influence of mind wandering and executive attention.
Mind-Wandering With and Without Intention
Back to the future
Mechanisms linking epistemic curiosity and learning performance
Keeping Creativity under Control
Recurrent involuntary memories and mind wandering are related but distinct
Mindwandering heightens the accessibility of negative relative to positive thought
Subliminal food images compromise superior working memory performance in women with restricting anorexia nervosa
Different efficiencies of attentional orienting in different wandering minds
I think therefore I am
Attention to the Passage of Time
Adaptive functions and default nature of undirected thought, bliss or not
What do agreeable people think about? spontaneous thoughts as a component of personality
For whom is mind wandering stressful
Mind-wandering While Reading
Translation and validation of the Mind-Wandering Test for Spanish adolescents
Possible Selves in Late Antiquity
| Unique citing works | 21 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,4 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2026 (16) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 19 |