The Philosophy of Mind-Wandering
Oxford Handbooks Online April 5, 2018 Zachary C. Irving, Evan Thompson
Standard psychological definitions of mind-wandering as task-unrelated or stimulus-independent thought have significant shortcomings: they miss the dynamic nature of mind-wandering, include task-unrelated thoughts that are not mind-wandering, and exclude task-related mind-wandering. Philosophical analysis offers improved accounts, particularly defining mind-wandering as 'unguided thinking.' This definition is conceptually and phenomenologically precise and can be operationalized for empirical research, unlike definitions based on meta-awareness, cognitive agency, or disunity.