Fixation, flexibility, and creativity: The dynamics of mind wandering.

Abstract

The mind-wandering literature is long on results and short on theory. One notable exception is the Dynamic Framework, a theoretical framework that characterizes mind wandering as thoughts that are relatively unconstrained from deliberate and automatic sources, or “freely moving.” Critically, this framework makes numerous testable predictions, including (a) a positive association between freely moving thought and ADHD, (b) negative associations between freely moving thought and depression, anxiety, and OCD, and (c) a positive association between freely moving thought and divergent thinking ability. In Study 1, to test these predictions, we measured participants’ reports of freely moving thoughts during a cognitive task and assessed divergent thinking and various psychopathological symptoms. Results failed to support any of the Dynamic Framework’s predictions. In Study 2, we assessed the predicted relations between freely moving thought and divergent-thinking performance by manipulating thought constraint during a creative-incubation interval that preceded a divergent-thinking task. Here, we found some evidence (albeit very weak) to support the Dynamic Framework’s prediction. Finally, in Study 3, we examined the possibility that indexing freely moving thought during a divergent-thinking task would yield the predicted associations but failed to find support for these associations. These results, most of which are at odds with the predictions of the Dynamic Framework, suggest either the need to revise the framework and/or that current methods are inadequate to properly test these predictions.

Creative thinking does not promote dishonesty

“…Even though it is not clear whether the mind game , the matrices task [18,42] and the die-under-the-cup paradigm [18,43,44] differ in their difficulty of justifying dishonest behaviour, we judge these setups to be largely similar, so we do not assume that this methodological difference drives the divergence of results across studies. Moreover, as recently shown, the relation of cognitive flexibility and creativity is quite ambiguous [45] and creativity does not seem to be exclusively related to the generation of unethical justifications but to the production of justifications in general [46]. Speculatively, creative thinking might lead to more ethical justifications for some participants, thus promoting honesty, while other participants might come up with more unethical justifications, therefore opting for dishonest behaviour.…”

The shower effect: Mind wandering facilitates creative incubation during moderately engaging activities.

“…6Recent research may also support our hypothesis that creative incubation benefits from moderate levels of constraint. Smith et al (2022) found a U-shaped relationship between freely moving thought and creative incubation during a 0-back task. Specifically, moderate ratings of freely moving thought were associated with heightened creativity, compared with low and high ratings.…”

The relationship between schizotypal personality features and mind wandering among college students during COVID-19 pandemic: A moderator of depression

“…Some studies have shown that the degree of social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with depression ( 28 ). We found that a dynamic model of mind wandering can predict depression, while interventions for mind wandering have been shown to alleviate depression symptoms ( 29 ).…”