Inspired by Distraction

Benjamin Baird; Jonathan Smallwood; Michael D. Mrazek; Julia W. Y. Kam; Michael S. Franklin; Jonathan W. Schooler

doi:10.1177/0956797612446024

Inspired by Distraction

Benjamin Baird¹; Jonathan Smallwood²; Michael D. Mrazek¹; Julia W. Y. Kam³; Michael S. Franklin¹; Jonathan W. Schooler¹

¹ Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara · ² Department for Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany · ³ Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia

Psychological Science 2012

Although anecdotes that creative thoughts often arise when one is engaged in an unrelated train of thought date back thousands of years, empirical research has not yet investigated this potentially critical source of inspiration. We used an incubation paradigm to assess whether performance on validated creativity problems (the Unusual Uses Task, or UUT) can be facilitated by engaging in either a demanding task or an undemanding task that maximizes mind wandering. Compared with engaging in a demanding task, rest, or no break, engaging in an undemanding task during an incubation period led to substantial improvements in performance on previously encountered problems. Critically, the context that improved performance after the incubation period was associated with higher levels of mind wandering but not with a greater number of explicitly directed thoughts about the UUT. These data suggest that engaging in simple external tasks that allow the mind to wander may facilitate creative problem solving.

DOI: 10.1177/0956797612446024
Volume: 23 (10)
Pages: 1117-1122
Language: en
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