Event Timeslots (1)
Wednesday
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Everyone's mind wanders. Yet we know surprisingly little about mind wandering. Although there have long been scattered philosophical reflections on distraction, reverie, and the stream of consciousness, mind wandering has only recently become a focus of systematic philosophical and scientific research. Psychological studies estimate that it occupies roughly one-third to one-half of waking life, so understanding mind wandering is essential to understanding the human mind. This seminar examines mind wandering from an interdisciplinary perspective. Topics include the current state of psychological and neuroscientific research; the concept and definition of mind wandering; the potential mechanisms underlying it, especially the role of cognitive control; whether and in what sense mind wandering can be agential, and how it relates to our mental autonomy; and its possible functions and value.
Literature:
Christoff, K., Irving, Z. C., Fox, K. C. R., Spreng, R. N., & Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2016). Mind-wandering as spontaneous thought: A dynamic framework. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 17(11), 718-731.
Irving, Z. C., & Thompson, E. (2018). The philosophy of mind-wandering. In K. C. R. Fox and K. Christoff (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of spontaneous thought: Mind-wandering, creativity, and dreaming (pp. 87-96). Oxford University Press.
Metzinger, T. (2013). The myth of cognitive agency: Subpersonal thinking as a cyclically recurring loss of mental autonomy. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, Article 931.
Seli, P., Kane, M. J., Smallwood, J., Schacter, D. L., Maillet, D., Schooler, J. W., & Smilek, D. (2018). Mind-wandering as a natural kind: A family-resemblances view. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 22(6), 479-490.
Smallwood, J., & Schooler, J. W. (2015). The science of mind wandering: Empirically navigating the stream of consciousness. Annual Review of Psychology, 66, 487-518.