Inspired by Distraction

Abstract

Although anecdotes that creative thoughts often arise when one is engaged in an unrelated train of thought date back thousands of years, empirical research has not yet investigated this potentially critical source of inspiration. We used an incubation paradigm to assess whether performance on validated creativity problems (the Unusual Uses Task, or UUT) can be facilitated by engaging in either a demanding task or an undemanding task that maximizes mind wandering. Compared with engaging in a demanding task, rest, or no break, engaging in an undemanding task during an incubation period led to substantial improvements in performance on previously encountered problems. Critically, the context that improved performance after the incubation period was associated with higher levels of mind wandering but not with a greater number of explicitly directed thoughts about the UUT. These data suggest that engaging in simple external tasks that allow the mind to wander may facilitate creative problem solving.

Boredom begs to differ: Differentiation from other negative emotions.

“…To be clear, although boredom may often lead to mind-wandering, a wandering mind may not necessarily feel bored, for example when people daydream (Schupak & Rosenthal, 2009). Although mindwandering can prove detrimental to performance (see Mooneyham & Schooler, 2013), it can also foster inspiration and creativity (Baird, Smallwood, Mrazek, Kam, Franklin, & Schooler, 2012). In fact, Mooneyham and Schooler (2013) proposed that mind-wandering may serve a range of functions, including attention shifts to maintain goal-relevant behavior, brief moments of dishabituation to increase benefits from learning, or, indeed, relief from boredom.…”

Conjoint influence of mind-wandering and sleepiness on task performance.

“…Although mind-wandering may be beneficial in some respects, for instance by allowing oneself to plan and remember things that need to be done in the future (e.g., Baird, Smallwood, & Schooler, 2011;Mason & Reinholtz, 2015;Stawarczyk, Cassol, & D'Argembeau, 2013;Stawarczyk & D'Argembeau, 2015;Stawarczyk, Majerus, Maj, et al, 2011), to generate creative ideas (Baird et al, 2012;Singer & McCraven, 1961;Singer & Schonbar, 1961), and to display more patience for future rewards (Bernhardt et al, 2014;, a major negative consequence of this mental state is that it is generally detrimental to the task being performed at the moment of its appearance (for a meta-analysis, see Randall, Oswald, & Beier, 2014). For instance, in laboratory studies, mindwandering has been consistently associated with decreased text comprehension while reading You created this PDF from an application that is not licensed to print to novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) are impaired during periods of sleep deprivation or restriction, and that increased sleepiness results in impaired RTs and lower accuracy during attentional tasks (for recent reviews, see Jackson & Van Dongen, 2011;Killgore, 2010;Lim & Dinges, 2008;Short & Banks, 2014).…”

How a hobby can boost researchers’ productivity and creativity

“…"You can't get outside the box you're in, " says Simonton. Evidence suggests that taking a break 3 or doing something different 4 can help to weaken those associations and improve problem-solving, by revealing a new approach or an overlooked detail 4 .…”