In an article in the 2012 journal Association for Psychological Science titled “Inspired by Distraction: Mind Wandering Facilitates Creative Incubation,” authors Baird et. al looked at the link between solving problems in creative ways and providing an opportunity for those solutions to occur. Let’s look at what the study examined then what it could mean for teachers. First, imagine a group of adults are given a brick and are asked for a list of possible uses for the brick. Before the group begins thinking of creative building patterns for the brick, they discover the catch; the uses of the brick must be different from the brick’s typical purpose. How many uses can the person list before the well of creativity runs dry? After a short period of time, the group is stopped and divided into four sub-groups. They are either given a somewhat taxing activity that requires them to use their memory, they are given a more laissez-faire activity that allows their mind a chance to wander at will, they are given a chance to rest, or they are instructed to simply continue thinking of new uses for the brick. After a period of time, all groups return to the original task, finding new uses for that brick. Which of these sub-groups created the most extensive list of uses? It is not, as a demanding teacher may assume, the group pushed to continue without a break, nor is it the group, as perhaps the well-meaning teacher might believe, the group given a short rest period. Instead, the group who is given the easier task – not the memory-dependent one – created the most extensive list of possible uses for that very ordinary brick.
Does this mean in order to solve a problem, we simply should allow our minds to think of anything but the problem and roam at will? Not exactly. Instead, if the problem solver believes no further solutions are forthcoming, the problem solver can find success in redirecting attention towards a separate but less daunting task. Imagine an astrophysicist determinedly attempting to measure the diameter of a black hole that lies several thousand light years away. The astrophysicist, struggling with immense computations, may find not only respite and solace in a quick word search but may also become more successful in future calculations because of the mental diversion – the mind wandering.
Classroom Application
How can we put this information to use in the classroom? First, instead of reprimanding students who seem to need those moments of mind-wandering, we should encourage them. We can initiate periodic times in the day or class period to encourage students to divert their mental focus from one more demanding task to one more creative and mentally freeing. Students attempting to power through a lengthy literary essay may benefit from five or ten minutes of drawing or some guided meditation.
Students struggling with one complicated calculus problem may reach the solution with much less stress and much more confidence if they are prompted to hum the words to their favorite song or imagine eating their favorite ice cream. Although this area of cognition has many mazes left unsolved, it seems as if the solution may not result solely from endless hours spent pouring over surveys, test results, and interviews. The solutions to this cognitive query and indeed many others, may be in doing the opposite of what many of our teachers told us. Instead of adhering to the admonition to “pay attention and focus more,” perhaps we should, on occasion, “lose attention and focus less.” Who knows what uses we may all find for those bricks in the process?
