Creativity and the Wandering Mind: Spontaneous and Controlled Cognition

Creativity and the Wandering Mind: Spontaneous and Controlled Cognition summarizes research on the impact of mind wandering and cognitive control on creativity, including imagination, fantasy and play. Most coverage in this area has either focused on the negative consequences of mind wandering on focused problem solving or the positive effect of mindfulness, but not on the positive consequences of mind wandering. This volume bridges that gap. Research indicates that most people experience mind wandering during a large percentage of their waking time, and that it is a baseline default mode of brain function during the awake but resting state. This volume explores the different kinds of mind wandering and its positive impact on imagination, play, problem-solving, and creative production.

Discusses spontaneous and controlled processes in creativityExamines the relationship between mind wandering, consciousness, and imaginationReviews research on problem-solving, imagination, play, and learningHighlights the positive impact of mind wandering on creative thought and output

Section I Spontaneous and controlled processes in creativity

1. Mind wandering: framework of a lexicon and musings on creativity Paul Joseph Barnett and James C. Kaufman

2. Autonomy and control across cognition: insights from creativity, memory, mind wandering, and reasoning research Nathaniel Barr, Roger Beaty and Paul Seli

3. Capturing the dynamics of creative daydreaming Claire M. Zedelius and Jonathan W. Schooler

4. The relationships between abstraction and creativity Massimiliano Palmiero

Section II Mind wandering, consciousness, and imagination

5. Imagination and mind wandering: two sides of the same coin? A brain dynamics perspective Mario Villena-Gonza´lez and Diego Cosmelli

6. Altered states of consciousness and creativity Luisa Prochazkova and Bernhard Hommel

7. Creating the “stuff of experience”: spontaneous thoughts, memory, and hypnosis in clinical and forensic contexts Steven Jay Lynn, Craig Polizzi, Vladimir Miskovic and Damla Aksen

Section II Imagination, play, and learning

8. Relations between imagination and creativity Jacqueline D. Woolley, Louise Bunce and Elizabeth A. Boerger

9. Pretend play in young children and the emergence of creativity David Whitebread and Lisha O’Sullivan

10. Mind wandering, fantasy, and pretend play: a natural combination Sandra W. Russ

11. Exploring the connection between imagination and creativity in academic learning Ronald A. Beghetto and Kathy L. Schuh

12. Productive mind wandering in design practice Charles Dobson and Kalina Christoff

13. Poetry, meaning making, and mind wandering David D. Preiss

Section V Conclusion

14. Fragments from a notebook on novelty and constraint Patrick Colm Hogan