What is Mind-Wandering and how to use it to our own advantage

The mind-wandering phenomenon indicates the tendency of the mind to wander and to shift attention to something else and this has costs but also advantages.

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The wandering mind and the tendency to distract

Daydreaming, fantasizing, imagining future events or reliving past moments, talking to oneself or conversing with an "other" imaginary are just a few examples of the richness and dynamism of our mental life. A wandering mind, defined by international literature with terms such as mind-wandering, daydreaming, stimulus-independent thinking, task-unrelated thought, zoning-out. These terms underline the very nature of the phenomenon: a common and ordinary event characterized by the tendency to distract us from what we are doing and transcend the present reality. The attentive focus moves away from the here and now, from the surrounding external environment and from any tasks to which we should, however, dedicate and pay attention (think for example how many times our mind wanders and distracts during periods of study or work occupying herself with the most varied themes and contents).

The mind-wandering therefore reflects our tendency and ability to disengage attention from perception without an intention clearly defined; this phenomenon is known in the literature with the term "perceptual decoupling". Nothing strange or pathological, but rather the true essence of the human mind and conscience: a consciousness with a constantly changing content, with its own rhythm and its own dynamism. A dynamic oscillating between a direct attention to the surrounding external world and a self-referential attention directed towards our inner world. It is this oscillating rhythm that defines and characterizes the complexity and richness of what we are.

In accordance with our subjective experience, the literature emphasizes that mind-wandering is an almost universal phenomenon and occupies almost half of our mental life during the waking state. Despite its universality and its spontaneous and natural character.
Some research shows a consistent series of negative effects that our tendency would have on us and on our cognitive abilities. During mind-wandering , our cognitive resources are used and absorbed by our own mental activity, away from the surrounding world and the attentive requests of the here and now.

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Costs of mind-wandering

There are many costs associated with mind-wandering studied in literature. Difficulties related to reading comprehension due to a more superficial coding of written material and incoming information. Other costs concern the difficulties of sustained attention , that is our ability to sustain and maintain the attention for prolonged periods of time, necessary for many tasks of daily learning. Other studies have shown how mind-wandering has negative repercussions on our working memory capacity, a construct strongly associated with our own intellectual faculties. Although intelligence is commonly considered a stable and unchangeable measure, recent studies show that mental training aimed at strengthening working memory skills can increase our ability to process information, a transversal capacity that would result in improved performance at fluid intelligence test.

Thus, by challenging the skills of attention, working memory and learning, it is not surprising that a high propensity to mind-wandering can result in poorer intellectual performances. The destructive effects of mind-wandering not only affect the more properly cognitive area but also negatively affect our emotions; regardless of mental content (positive or negative), our mind-wandering tendency would lead us to be less happy. The relationship between mind-wandering and the lowering of the mood seems to be strong and circular: a wandering mind leads us to be less happy and, at the same time, a lowering of the mood leads to a greater propensity to wander with the mind. This phenomenon seems to be responsible for vicious circles at the base of a potential modification of mental life in a psychopathological sense, in particular towards anxiety and / or depressive disorders.

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The function value of mind-wandering

However, the questions that arise spontaneously from the mind-wandering costs are the following: does mind-wandering really have that destructive essence in it? Given its universality and spontaneity, will it have functional value in itself? So would the enemy to be opposed be the mind itself?

The mind-wandering phenomenon can have positive, functional and adaptive properties. It seems to be linked to our future planning skills, a goal oriented planning considered important for the personal goals of the subject. Studies suggest that the tendency to wander with the mind is also connected with an increase in creativity in the individual and with better performance in problem-solving tasks , where the solution should not be sought in analytical procedures and strategies but rather through a creative insight.

Our tendency to zoning-out also seems to provide another advantage linked to a form of "self-stimulation" that we implement and which helps alleviate the sense of boredom we experience while performing long, mechanical or boring tasks. This is confirmed by the greater tendency to "absent oneself" with the mind precisely when the task is perceived as particularly tedious; the possibility of thinking of something else, instead of "being focused" to stay in the here and now, often leaves the person the subjective feeling that time has passed faster. Another advantage of mind-wandering, closely linked to the concept of creativity, is that of dishabituation, understood as the tendency to respond to an old stimulus as if it were new; the propensity to distract and wander from time to time with the mind would provide the opportunity to return to the task with new and more productive "fresh-minded" attentive abilities.

For similar reasons, a study method based on full-immersion or stubbornly trying to solve any problem or puzzle without allowing moments of pause and distraction does not facilitate either learning or solving a problem, leaving instead the subjective feeling being "stuck" on the task and not being able to proceed. The mind-wandering , finally, could be linked to a greater flexibility of our attentional cycles by providing the ability to process a variety of information (coming from both the external and internal: sensory stimuli, past memories, fantasies etc.), Moving between different flows thinking and maintaining appropriate behavior in the pursuit of different goals and objectives at the same time.

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Maximize the benefits and minimize the costs of mind-wandering

Given the costs and benefits associated with our natural and unavoidable propensity to travel with the mind, the central question then becomes how to maximize the benefits by minimizing the costs associated with an activity that is so potentially harmful and precious at the same time. The answer may lie in the future development of mental training that foster greater awareness and, above all, a modulation of one's state and mental functioning according to the situation and environmental demands: the ability to maintain the attentional focus in moments and situations requiring concentration, associated with the possibility of spacing and traveling with the mind where the context and the task allow it and can even productively benefit from it.