Mind-Wandering

Historical Context

People are often told that humans are social animals, so it is a surprise to consider that often what goes on in the private mental lives of people is most interesting to psychologists. Mind-wandering is an interesting psychological phenomenon for just this reason: It is a uniquely human act, it is an essential part of a person's internal world, and it is an experience that all readers of this encyclopedia will immediately recognize. Moreover, mind-wandering occurs in almost all circumstances, throughout the life span, and, in all cultures, suggesting that it is a universal part of the human condition. Despite the clear importance of mind-wandering to humans, psychologists are still relatively ignorant about mind-wandering relative to other aspects of social psychology covered in this encyclopedia.

One reason for the relative ignorance about mindWandering is because the nature of the experience often falls outside the boundaries of phenomena considered important by mainstream psychology. The assumptions of the work of behaviorists in the 20th century provide a clear example. Behaviorists often assumed that, first, the data of psychology should be based on observable facts rather than on the introspective evidence that had formed the focus of research in the previous century, and, second, that applying principles of learning was essential to understanding psychological phenomena. Mind-wandering is a clear candidate for neither—it is private experience and so accessible only through introspection. Moreover, because of its privacy, mind-wandering is an experience that is specifically unrelated to the learning that occurs in the environment.

In the 1960s, it became clear that the models of psychological functions based on the behaviorist account were too simple. The cognitive revolution, which occurred in response to these simple models, emphasized the importance of internal cognitive states in determining human behavior. Despite the pioneering work of Jerome Singer and John Antrobus, who developed reliable techniques for measuring private experience, the mainstream of cognitive psychology remained reluctant to embrace mind-wandering research. Many cognitive psychologists felt that these states were best measured by the use of objective measures such as response times, rather than through verbal reports as is the modus operandi for mindWandering. In addition, many researchers were put off because of researchers' lack of ability to manipulate—switch on and off mind-wandering—preventing the ability to draw causal conclusions.

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