The
next time your teacher scolds you for "zoning out," refer him
to this study by psychologists Benjamin Baird and Jonathan Schooler at
the University of California Santa Barbara:
History is rich with 'eureka' moments: scientists from Archimedes
to Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein are said to have had flashes of
inspiration while thinking about other things. But the mechanisms behind
this psychological phenomenon have remained unclear. A study now suggests
that simply taking a break does not bring on inspiration — rather,
creativity is fostered by tasks that allow the mind to wander. [...]
As well as revealing that breaks on their own do not encourage
creative thinking, Baird’s work suggests an explanation for one
of psychology’s great mysteries: why we zone out.
From an evolutionary perspective, mind-wandering seems totally
counterproductive and has been viewed as dysfunctional because it compromises
people’s performance in physical activities. However, Baird’s
work shows that allowing the brain to enter this state when it is considering
complex problems can have real benefits. Zoning out may have aided humans
when survival depended on creative solutions.
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