Meta-awareness and Mind Wandering
Jonathan Schooler, professor of psychology at the University of California (Santa Barbara), whose research focuses on consciousness, memory, meta-awareness, mind-wandering, and mindfulness, describes meta-awareness as our ability to take explicit note of the current contents of consciousness. He notes that when we are not focusing on what is happening around us, we generate imaginative thoughts that are unrelated to external circumstances. It is common to experience such imaginative thoughts and experience moments when our minds have wandered away from the situation at hand. Schooler suggests that mind-wandering is indicative of different kinds of attentional fluctuations.
What is meta-cognition and what is meta-awareness? Is mindfulness, the absence of mind wandering?
In the discussion with Jonathan Schooler, the author has covered on :
Metacognition is “cognition about cognition”, “thinking about thinking”, “knowing about knowing”, becoming “aware of one’s awareness” and higher-order thinking skills. Mind-wandering is defined as not paying attention to what is currently going around oneself.
The best example for meta-awareness is when a person is reading the book and then realizes his mind was thinking something else but his/her eyes were just gazing at the letters.
The mind-wandering differs for each individual. The researcher has discussed on mind-wandering may be distinguishable into separate types or forms, and that while some types of mind-wandering may be disruptive, others may provide some benefit. Recent research has suggested a functionality of mind-wandering within two very important activities: future thinking and creative thinking.
Mind-wandering might happen in either of the emotional states when the person is sad, depressed, they are wandering their minds to previous experiences or to the events which they are anticipating to happen in the future or when the person who is creative in nature, they use mind wandering for their productive work like creative writings, dance choreographies, ideas. The researcher has also defined ‘attention’ as the focus on consciousness and ‘consciousness’ as the general state of the experience and also on how mindfulness and mind-wandering have the conceptually opposing constructs like opposite sides of the same coin.
Amongst all the main topics in Bridging The Gaps, I felt interested in Psychology and my ‘attention’ was drawn towards the ‘mind wandering’ topic. Mind-wandering comes naturally to me and has helped me in thinking about ideas and to plan the future and I always have a curious sensation about the pattern of why the mind wandering occurs!! And hence I took up this topic to explore and to get knowledge of the benefits of mind wandering. After listening to the conversation and reading the publications on mind wandering, I have learned that mind wandering during the sad emotional state can put us in anxiety and distant one selves from mindfulness and I also realized that mind-wandering helps in productive ways like creative thinking, ideas, re-organize oneself and one of the ways to enjoy the time travel.