I believe that many friends have had such a similar experience.
One day in the math class, the teacher wrote the function solving equations on the blackboard. Your eyes flew along the teacher's back to the distance, and your vision began to blur. You first think of how the teacher's clothes are so familiar, as if Grandma has one. Then you think that Grandma's claypot rice is the best. When it comes to food, you think of the spicy hot shop downstairs.
With a bell, your thoughts return to reality, and you realize that your mind is wandering.
One afternoon, while you were reading a book, looking at a line in the book, your thoughts drifted away. You begin to recall the girl you met at the subway station, and you are looking forward to your successful ordering. It is best to marry Bai Fumei and reach the peak of your life.
The whistle of a car coming from a distance drags you back to reality, and then you realize that your mind is wandering.
In fact, there are many examples like this, and each of us has a wandering experience. Sometimes we feel guilty about having a wandering mind in class, not listening well, and being annoyed because we wander out of mind during a meeting and miss the content of the meeting.
So is mind wandering a norm? Why do we wander?
Today I would like to talk to you about those things about mind wandering.
Three hypotheses
The academic explanation of Mind Wandering refers to a loss of attention (or decoupling of attention), that is, the separation of attention from the current main task or external task, and the psychological process of internally generated thinking and thought. And status.
This definition sounds very foreign, but in fact, wandering is what we often say is to make a difference and daydream. If you have to give the mind a wandering vocabulary that is easy to understand and looks good, then we can call it TUT (Task Unrelated Thought). It really ca n’t be more.
You may never think of it, wandering minds occupy a large part of our daily lives. A lot of research shows that we wander about in our minds about 30% to 50% of the time every day. Therefore, everyone should not feel depressed because of the wandering of the mind, because others may be wandering in the mind when you wander. The biggest difference is that when you wander in the mind, you think about different things.
However, it stands to reason that mind wandering is the manifestation of inattention. Human beings have evolved for so many years, why is there so much time for mind wandering? If mind wandering does not happen randomly, is there any evidence to explain this phenomenon?
Although scientists have studied the process of mind wandering, there are still many problems that have not been understood. According to the current research results, there are three hypotheses that can explain the phenomenon of mind wandering.
The first hypothesis is the decoupling hypothesis proposed by Jonathan Smallwood, a professor of psychology at York University. This hypothesis holds that mind wandering uses a mechanism close to responsible execution control, and therefore consumes resources responsible for execution control, thereby suppressing the response to tasks, as if attention to decoupling resources from the current task.
To be honest, when I read this sentence, I felt like I was reading the heavenly script, and I knew each of the word lists, what a ghost! But it doesn't matter, I will give you an example later.
The second hypothesis is called the executive-control failure hypothesis, which is the opposite of the uncoupling hypothesis. This hypothesis holds that the occurrence of mind wandering is related to people's attention or ability to execute control. Need to consume execution resources. To put it plainly, the inability to walk is related to our ability to control ourselves.
The third kind of hypothesis is the theme competition hypothesis proposed in "Theory of Psychology-The Scientific Reduction of Human Nature", which means that a potential theme wins in the competition with the current theme, causing the interruption of the current theme and tasks.
After finishing these three hypotheses, many friends may still be embarrassed. It is not clear what these three hypotheses mean.
Give everyone an example.
Let's set up a scenario, for example, you are listening to a class of higher-order functions, and at this time your mind is wandering.
According to the explanation of the uncoupling hypothesis, that is, you have some understanding of functions before. Don't spend too much time on understanding deeper problems. So what is the time saved for? Of course, it is used to wander the mind.
According to the explanation of the execution control failure hypothesis, you are really hard to listen, but still do not understand, then your self-control will be worse, even if the mind is wandering, you can't control it.
The explanation of the theme competition hypothesis is that you are listening to the lesson, but at this time it is time to eat and you are hungry. When hunger keeps you from focusing on your lessons, you wander your mind and think about what to eat.
Looking at it this way, all three hypotheses seem to make some sense.
In fact, the above hypotheses have been verified to some extent in some experiments, but unfortunately, these hypotheses are not comprehensive enough.
So is there a more scientific statement to explain the wandering of the mind?
The brain's default device
To figure out exactly how we wander, we must first look into our brains.
In recent years, there has been increasing evidence that mind wandering is related to the default pattern network in our brains.
The so-called default mode network refers to a large-scale brain network composed of interacting brain regions. These regions include the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), precuneus, and posterior cingulate. cortex (PCC) and temporoparietal junction (TPJ).
Among them, the two areas related to mental wandering are mainly concentrated in the posterior cingulate gyrus (PCC) and the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). The former is mainly responsible for the processing of memory and information during the wandering of the mind, while the latter is mainly responsible for processing personal information and thinking about interpersonal relationships.
In addition, some researchers have applied brain imaging technology to the study of mind wandering and found that mind wandering is also related to enhanced default mode network activity. In a study led by neurology professor Wendy Hasenkamp, after comparing participants' mental loitering and non-psychotic loitering phases, it was also found that the core region of the default mode network has stronger activation during mental loitering.
Wendy Hasenkamp said that this default mode network is like the default setting in our phones, as long as you don't change it, it will always be like this. When we need to focus on something, it will be temporarily closed, and when we are in a daze, it will be turned on again, and we have the imagination of the sky and stars.
In this way, wandering is really the norm!
Since mind is a normal state when wandering, what do we all do when wandering?
Harvard's Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert conducted a survey on this. They collected data from more than 2,000 users in the form of app questionnaires. After analysis, they found that no matter what we do, we love to wander, especially at work time.
The larger the black dot, the easier it is to wander the mind when doing this
Because of this, many people hate their state of mind wandering, thinking that it not only delays work but also affects learning. But in fact, some studies have shown that mind wandering is also beneficial. It can stimulate our imagination and creativity, and it can also predict the future and help us plan for what happens next. For example, tomorrow is the date you date with the person you want, then today when you are wandering in your heart, you will think about what you will wear tomorrow.
I'm so hungry. Will I be hot or fried? If I order fried chicken, do I want honey mustard or sweet and spicy?
Ok? Where did I just write? Hey, don't say anymore, I'm going to eat!