by Althea Need Kaminske

(Cover image by ZeeShutterz • Framing beauty with creativity from Pixabay)

We live in a world full of distractions. I’ve written previously about the benefits of meditation for attentional focus and learning, we’ve provided tips for students on how to ignore irrelevant information while studying, and provided resources for how to reduce mind-wandering. And while it is important that we be able to focus when we need to, I want to reassure all the daydreamers out there that letting your mind wander every now and then can actually be really beneficial.

A paper by Benjamin Baird and colleagues (2012) examined how mind wandering affects creative problem solving (1). In this experiment participants were given the Unusual Uses Task (UUT) where they were asked to list as many unusual uses as possible for different items. After completing a baseline task where they were only given 2 minutes to list as many uses as possible, participants were randomly assigned to one of four incubation conditions (demanding task, undemanding task, rest, and no break). In the Demanding task participants were asked to do a task that required a lot of focus, thereby making it more difficult to let their mind wander. Participants were presented with a number on a screen followed by a fixation cross (+) and then a screen with a question mark. At each question mark they had to indicate whether the previous number was odd or even, but only if the question mark was in color. In contrast, participants in the Undemanding task were given a relatively easy task that would encourage mind wandering. In the Undemanding task, participants viewed numbers on a screen, presented one at a time. Most of the numbers were presented in black, which did not require a response. When numbers were presented in color, participants had to respond whether the number was odd or even. In the Rest condition participants were asked to sit quietly for the duration. In the No Break condition participants simply moved to the next phase of the experiment. After this incubation period, participants were given the UUT task again. Two of the items were repeats so they had the opportunity to list new uses, and two were new items. At the end of the experiment participants were given a mind wandering questionnaire to see how much their mind wandered during the experiment.

How did participants do on the UUT task? The UUT measures creative problem solving by comparing participants responses to each other in order to determine how many unique the participants came up with relative to each other. In this experiment researchers calculated whether participants came up with more unique uses after the incubation period relative to their baseline at the beginning. Researchers found that participants who completed the Undemanding task had the greatest improvement in UUT compared to the other tasks. In other words, participants who were given a task that encouraged mind wandering were able to come up with more unique uses for items than in other conditions - including the Rest condition (1). It should be noted that this improvement was only in the repeated items, supporting the idea that mind wandering allowed participants to mull over and think more creatively about problems that were already on their mind (as opposed to improving some general capacity for problem solving).

What I find really interesting about this study is that the Undemanding condition led to more creative problem solving, and more mind-wandering, than the Rest condition. When given the opportunity to sit quietly with no additional task, participants did not think much about the unusual uses task they were given at the beginning of the experiment. I don’t know what they thought about instead, but presumably it was about stuff that was totally non-related to the experiment. On the other hand, when they were given a very simple task in the Undemanding condition, they reported much higher levels of mind wandering and thinking about the previous task. This led to more unique ideas about how to use the objects.

It is incredibly important that we be able to focus and ignore distracting thoughts when we need to. However, this research highlights the importance of being able to unfocus, to let our mind wander, when we need to as well. To let go of some of the tight control we strive to have over our attention. Going for a walk or a bike ride, playing a simple game, even doing chores like folding laundry, or doing a simple task like taking a shower may all provide much needed time to encourage our mind to wander.

1. Baird, B., Smallwood, J., Mrazek, M. D., Kam, J. W. Y., Franklin, M. S., & Schooler, J. W. (2012). Inspired by distraction: Mind wandering facilitates creative incubation. 23(10), 1117-1122. doi: 10.1177/09567976124462024