How did participants do on the UUT task? The UUT measures creative problem solving by comparing participants responses to each other in order to determine how many unique the participants came up with relative to each other. In this experiment researchers calculated whether participants came up with more unique uses after the incubation period relative to their baseline at the beginning. Researchers found that participants who completed the Undemanding task had the greatest improvement in UUT compared to the other tasks. In other words, participants who were given a task that encouraged mind wandering were able to come up with more unique uses for items than in other conditions – including the Rest condition (1). It should be noted that this improvement was only in the repeated items, supporting the idea that mind wandering allowed participants to mull over and think more creatively about problems that were already on their mind (as opposed to improving some general capacity for problem solving).
What I find really interesting about this study is that the Undemanding condition led to more creative problem solving, and more mind-wandering, than the Rest condition. When given the opportunity to sit quietly with no additional task, participants did not think much about the unusual uses task they were given at the beginning of the experiment. I don’t know what they thought about instead, but presumably it was about stuff that was totally non-related to the experiment. On the other hand, when they were given a very simple task in the Undemanding condition, they reported much higher levels of mind wandering and thinking about the previous task. This led to more unique ideas about how to use the objects.
It is incredibly important that we be able to focus and ignore distracting thoughts when we need to. However, this research highlights the importance of being able to unfocus, to let our mind wander, when we need to as well. To let go of some of the tight control we strive to have over our attention. Going for a walk or a bike ride, playing a simple game, even doing chores like folding laundry, or doing a simple task like taking a shower may all provide much needed time to encourage our mind to wander.
