okansas.blogspot.com
Occassional thoughts about orienteering


Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Mind wandering

 

Think about how often it happens that you're in an orienteering race, having a good race and suddenly you catch yourself thinking of something else. If you're lucky, you catch yourself and regain concentration. Sometimes you're unlucky and you realize you aren't exactly sure where you are. You lose time.

Michael Kane and Jonathon Schooler, both psychologist, have been studying how peoples minds wander. Some of their research was summarized in today's NY Times. It struck me as very relevant to orienteering.

One experiment involved having people take a little survey at random intervals. Basically, an alarm would go off and the subject would have to answer some questions about what they'd been doing and thinking immediately before the alarm rang.

The researchers found that people's minds wander a lot. No surprise. Even when they were doing a fairly concentrated task, like reading, people's minds wandered 15-20 percent of the time. They also discovered that people's minds often wandered without knowing. Again, no surprise.

Here is a quote from the news story:

''The mind is always trying to wander, every chance it gets,'' Schooler said. In his view, the mind has not only the goal of achieving whatever task we're focused on, but also personal goals simmering outside of our immediate awareness. These are things like making plans for the future, working out everyday problems, and better understanding oneself. Sometimes, one of these goals hijacks our attention. And so our mind wanders.


The research sounds interesting. I'll have to try to poke around the web pages of Kane and Schooler and see if I can find more information.


Back to okansas.blogspot.com.

posted by Michael | 9:12 PM

0 comments


Comments: Post a Comment
March 2002April 2002May 2002June 2002July 2002August 2002September 2002October 2002November 2002December 2002January 2003February 2003March 2003April 2003May 2003June 2003July 2003August 2003September 2003October 2003November 2003December 2003January 2004February 2004March 2004April 2004May 2004June 2004July 2004August 2004September 2004October 2004November 2004December 2004January 2005February 2005March 2005April 2005May 2005June 2005July 2005August 2005September 2005October 2005November 2005December 2005January 2006February 2006March 2006April 2006May 2006June 2006July 2006August 2006September 2006October 2006November 2006December 2006January 2007February 2007March 2007April 2007May 2007June 2007July 2007August 2007September 2007October 2007November 2007December 2007January 2008February 2008March 2008April 2008May 2008June 2008July 2008August 2008September 2008October 2008November 2008December 2008January 2009February 2009March 2009April 2009May 2009June 2009July 2009August 2009September 2009October 2009November 2009December 2009January 2010February 2010March 2010April 2010May 2010June 2010July 2010August 2010September 2010October 2010November 2010December 2010January 2011February 2011March 2011April 2011May 2011June 2011July 2011August 2011September 2011October 2011November 2011December 2011January 2012February 2012March 2012April 2012May 2012June 2012July 2012August 2012September 2012October 2012November 2012December 2012January 2013March 2013April 2013May 2013July 2013September 2013
archives
links