A Critical Review: finding a balance for mind wandering in higher education Mind wandering is a universal everyday experience that affects every university student. A voluntary or involuntary shift in attention draws the student from their current task to focus on internal trains of thought. In doing so, the negative effects on the task outcomes may affect study outcomes and the positive effects of focusing inward may affect personal development outcomes. The aim of this review is to understand the primary costs and benefits of mind wandering in relation to the individual student. This essay will analyse the methodology used in studies that find costs to educational outcomes and adaptive benefits of mind wandering. The role …show more content…
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) provides functional measures of the resting brain, helping to understand the nature of the brains networks. The fMRI illustrated the ‘default mode network’, where several structures of the brain showed more activity at rest than during externally directed cognitive tasks (McMillan et al., 2013). Although previously the difficulty to describe the inner experience of mind wandering in words may have contributed to the lack of research (Mooneyham and Schooler, 2013), this emerging evidence has generated a new wave of interest (McMillan et al., 2013). Mind wandering may be especially prevalent in the educational setting (Moulton et al 2013) and notwithstanding, cognitive and educational psychologists have become interested in applying principles of cognitive psychology to education. Subsequently, the findings from this new wave of research may directly influence the modelling of delivery methods in higher education, particularly online programs initially (Szpunar et al.,2013), and improve learning outcomes …show more content…
They found that mind wandering caused neural activity in both default (resting) and executive (goal directed) regions at the same time (Christoff et al). This suggests that mind wandering is resource demanding, and may be a sign of a high capacity working memory (Smallwood & Schooler), perhaps facilitating the high order goal planning during daydreaming predicted by Singer decades ago (Mooneyham & Schooler). As reported by Christoff et al. (2009), neural activity was strongest when subjects were not aware of their mind wandering, suggesting that mind wandering is more prolific when it lacks meta awareness. Additionally, the test measure on the SART indicated that with meta awareness there were less errors. This study explicitly validated evidence of the previously disputed neural recruitment in mind wandering by using the triangulation method of combining neuro imaging with self-reports and the behavioural measures of brain function (Christoff et al., 2009). Equally importantly, these findings specifically relate to university education, and depending on alignment of personal goals, could augment educational goals, and the attainment of better educational outcomes. Furthermore, the more mindful or meta aware a student, the less mind wandering, providing
Kennedy, Professor. "Wandering Mind." Wandering Mind RSS. Sakridge, 4 Feb. 2012. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.
Mindfulness is a concept or practice that was founded nearly 2600 years ago. It is a very integral component of the Buddhist faith and is believed to be associated with many benefits including self-control, tolerance, flexibility, objectivity, concentration, mental clarity, emotional intelligence, kindness, compassion, acceptance, and equanimity.
A classroom of thirty is filled with a diverse group of students that think in all different ways. Each child’s brain processes informat...
In The article “Brainology” “Carol S Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, differentiates between having a fixed and growth mindset in addition how these mindsets have a deep effect on a student’s desire to learn. Individuals who have a fixed mindset believe they are smart without putting in effort and are afraid of obstacles, lack motivation, and their focus is to appear smart.. In contrast, students with a growth mindset learn by facing obstacles and are motivated to learn. Dwecks argues that students should develop a growth mindset. Students who have a growth mindset learn by facing obstacle because they see them as a way of learning.
Mindfulness is arguably one of the best things a human can do when it comes to relieving stress. Some can argue that that the best way to relieve stress would be to exercise or consume alcohol, but mindfulness is different in the fact that a person can stay focused without being judgemental (Davis & Hayes, 2010). This is critical when it comes to relieving stress because college can mentally weigh a person down. If a post-secondary student is able to effectively use mindfulness based stress reduction, this could help relieve the stress and prevent future problems such as depression or anxiety. Although there are many methods in relieving stress, mindfulness based stress reduction is a beneficial method in relieving college students’ stress
Numerous speculations have been advanced to clarify the relationship between what we call your mind and your brain. They incorporate Jackson and Nagel 's journey to oppose recognizing what we call 'mental
Strayer, D. L., & Watson, J. M. (2012). Supertaskers and the multitasking brain. Scientific American Mind, 23(1), 22-29.
Smith, E. E. and Kosslyn, S. M. (2009). Cognitive psychology: Mind and brain. New Jersey: Pearson Education
Every wonder why the mind have a tendency to go off focus and, start to think about something else than the task at hand. You start to think about where rather be than where you are or an event that happen in the past. The state of consciousness is called daydreaming. Daydreaming is “a common variation of consciousness in which attention shifts to memories and desires, away from the immediate situation” (Zimbarbo 332). Mostly everyone part take in daydreaming every day. Going without daydreaming is abnormal. Normally thirty (30) percent of the day is spent daydreaming(Zimbarbo 332). People daydreaming can be positive and negative . There different themes and w
Daydreaming is a part of almost all of people’s lives at some point. Daydreaming can take place anywhere, from the home, school, work, or even when you just happen to be taking a walk. Daydreaming is something that is an immense part of my life. I function much better when I daydream momentarily. Much of the older generation may say that daydreaming isn’t productive, or that it doesn’t get you anywhere, but I believe that daydreaming allows me to be more creative and successful.
10-Minute Mindfulness appeals to me because I am at a time in my life where peace and
In the past two decades, many philosophers, spiritual leaders, and psychological transitions have accentuated the importance of the quality of consciousness for the maintenance and enhancement of well-being. One of the characteristics of consciousness that has been discussed in relation to well-being is mindfulness. In concentration with the psychology discipline, mindfulness meditation practices have been increasingly used to treat a majority of pain, stress and anxiety-related conditions and also, increasing well-being. The ideology of mindfulness meditation has core roots in Buddhist philosophy and other pensive traditions where awareness and conscious attention are actively cultured (Brown, Kirk Warren,2003).
Throughout the ages, humans have had an inherent interest in studying the complex area of human behaviour, even before psychology was established as a science. Because the study of behaviour is so broad and multifaceted, its scientific study poses particular challenges. Therefore, it can be beneficial to approach the scientific study of human behaviour from the perspective of cognitive psychology. This is the study of cognition, the mental processes that underlie human behaviour (Ling & Cattling, 2012).
Creativity, it’s a broad topic of just new things and ideas among people. The definition of creativity is the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work. PBS describes creativity as, “The new ideas and new connections between ideas, and ways to solve problems in any field or realm of our lives. The concept of creativity is often hard to grasp because creativity isn 't a tangible thing its just and idea. Also, because it’s hard to differ between a truly original idea and an idea that is just shaped from others. With all this being said, it can be hard to figure out where creativity comes from.
Everybody; old and young have active an imagination, but we all express it differently than others. For me I express my imagination with my artwork. For example; when I was younger I watched a lot of cartoons just like any other kid. My favorite cartoon at the time was He-Man. I loved the show so much that I frequently dreamt and imagined of being strong like him, but I knew it could not be possible so instead of dreaming, I drew up an entire comic book of myself being a super strong super hero just like He-Man all thanks to my vivid imagination and artistic ability. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has done something similar.