Abstract
Researchers use the term “mind wandering” (MW) when referring to covert disengagement from task performance. Characterizing MW in terms of an antagonistic relation to task sustains the impression that MW consists of a single set of processes, associated with a common set of principles, causes, and consequences. On one hand, the idea that MW refers to a single set of processes is disconfirmed by evidence. On the other hand, the antagonistic relation with task performance continues to re-unify MW and maintains a set of associated connotations. The idea of MW as a unitary concept is also tacitly preserved when associating it with other phenomena, such as creativity. It is possible to approach the phenomena that are gathered under the umbrella of MW in their own right, instead of approaching them in terms of one type of (antagonistic) relation to task performance. Doing so, however, would diminish the unity and glamour of the elusive construct of MW.
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Gozli, D. (2019). Varieties of Disengagement. In: Experimental Psychology and Human Agency. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20422-8_8
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