Ep.125. What Are the Benefits of Mind Wandering to Creativity?

"What Are the Benefits of Mind Wandering to Creativity?" by Samuel Murray, Nathan Liang, Nicholaus Brosowsky, and Paul SeliSummaryThis journal article from Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts investigates the widely discussed idea that mind wandering during a creative incubation period enhances divergent thinking, a form of creativity involving generating multiple solutions. Through two studies attempting to replicate previous findings, the authors found no evidence to support this claim. They suggest that defining mind wandering solely as task-unrelated thought is inadequate for assessing its link to creativity and propose future research should focus on how constrained vs. unconstrained thinking relates to different types of creative outcomes over varying timescales.