A new study suggests that letting your mind wander, especially when doing something that doesn’t require much focus, might ...

When doing tasks that require little attention, people who let their minds wander show brain activity similar to sleep. This ...

When people let their minds wander during tasks that require attention and active thinking, it can hurt how well they learn ...

When psychologist Jonathan Smallwood set out to study mind-wandering about 25 years ago, few of his peers thought that was a very good idea. How could one hope to investigate these spontaneous and ...

Not all spontaneous thoughts are detrimental. Some people naturally gravitate toward protective positive thinking. Their mind seems to automatically glom onto uplifting or empowering thoughts.

Spontaneous mind wandering during boring tasks may unexpectedly boost learning by mimicking deep rest brain activity.

When people let their minds wander during tasks that require attention and active thinking, it can hurt how well they learn and perform the tasks. But ...

Mind wandering while doing the task did not worsen performance, and in some cases even enhanced learning. Spontaneous mind wandering was more beneficial to learning than deliberate mind wandering.