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How to Reduce Mind-Wandering During Class
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson

I recently wrote a series of posts about research into asking questions. As noted in the first part of that series, we have lots of research that points to a surprising conclusion.

Let’s say I begin class by asking students questions about the material they’re about to learn. More specifically: because the students haven’t learned this material yet, they almost certainly get the answers wrong.

A college age student smiling and raising her hand to ask a question.

Even more specifically — and more strangely — I’m actually trying to ask them questions that they won’t answer correctly.

In most circumstances, this way of starting class would sound…well…mean. Why start class by making students feel foolish?

Here’s why: we’ve got a good chunk of research showing that these questions — questions that students will almost certainly get wrong — ultimately help them learn the correct answers during class.

(To distinguish this particular category of introductory-questions-that-students-will-get-wrong, I’m going to call them “prequestions.”)

Now, from one perspective, it doesn’t really matter why prequestions help. If asking prequestions promotes learning, we should probably ask them!

From another perspective, we’d really like to know why these questions benefit students.

Here’s one possibility: maybe they help students focus. That is: if students realize that they don’t know the answer to a question, they’ll be alert to the relevant upcoming information.

Let’s check it out!

Strike That, Reverse That, Thank You

I started by exploring prequestions; but we could think about the research I’m about to describe from the perspective of mind-wandering.

If you’ve ever taught, and ESPECIALLY if you’ve ever taught online, you know that students’ thoughts often drift away from the teacher’s topic to…well…cat memes, or a recent sports upset, or some romantic turmoil.

For obvious reasons, we teachers would LOVE to be able to reduce mind-wandering. (Check out this blog post for one approach.)

Here’s one idea: perhaps prequestions could reduce mind-wandering. That is: students might have their curiosity piqued — or their sense of duty highlighted — if they see how much stuff they don’t know.

Worth investigating, no?

Questions Answered

A research team — including some real heavy hitters! — explored these questions in a recent study.

Across two experiments, they had students watch a 26-minute video on a psychology topic (“signal detection theory”).

  • Some students answered “prequestions” at the beginning of the video.
  • Others answered those questions sprinkled throughout the video.
  • And some (the control group) solved unrelated algebra problems.

Once the researchers crunched all the numbers, they arrived at some helpful findings.

First: yes, prequestions reduced mind-wandering. More precisely, students who answered prequestions reported that they had given more of their attention to the video than those who solved the algebra problems.

Second: yes, prequestions promoted learning. Students who answered prequestions were likelier to get the answer correct on a final test after the lecture than those who didn’t.

Important note: this benefit applied ONLY to the questions that students had seen before. The researchers also asked students new questions — ones that hadn’t appeared as prequestions. The prequestion group didn’t score any higher on those new questions than the control group did.

Third: no, the timing of the questions didn’t matter. Students benefitted from prequestions asked at the beginning as much as those sprinkled throughout.

From Lab to Classroom

So, what should teachers DO with this information.

I think the conclusions are mostly straightforward.

A: The evidence pool supporting prequestions is growing. We should use them strategically.

B: This study highlights their benefts to reduce mind-wandering, especially for online classes or videos.

C: We don’t need to worry about the timing. If we want to ask all prequestions up front or jumble them throughout the class, either strategy (according to this study) gets the job done.

D: If you’re interested in specific suggestions on using and understanding prequestions, check out this blog post.

A Final Note

Research is, of course, a highly technical business. For that reason, most psychology studies make for turgid reading.

While this one certainly has its share of jargon heavy, data-laden sentences, its explanatory sections are unusually easy to read.

If you’d like to get a sense of how researchers think, check it out!


Pan, S. C., Sana, F., Schmitt, A. G., & Bjork, E. L. (2020). Pretesting reduces mind wandering and enhances learning during online lectures. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition9(4), 542-554.

Does Mind-Wandering Harm Learning?
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson

If you teach children for several hours a day, you just know that sometimes they’re with you…and sometimes not.

Side view of student girl enjoying summer breeze , smiling with eyes closed

They might be focused on your description of the “angle-side-angle” theorem; or, they might be thinking about the Oscars. (What a speech!)

So we might reasonably ask: “is their mind-wandering a problem? Do they learn less?”

We might be tempted by an uplifting answer: “mind-wandering allows students to make fresh and helpful connections.” If they link angle-side-angle to the Oscars, after all, they have made connections that will help them consolidate this new geometry information.

Or, we might be worried about a tough-minded answer: “it seems sort of obvious that if students aren’t focusing, they almost certainly aren’t learning.”

Which is it?

We’ve got a fair amout of research with adolescents and adults; for them, mind-wandering hampers learning.

But, what about younger students?

Pharaohs and Dinosaurs

As always, research details matter.

In this recent study, researchers asked 8-9 year olds to listen to two stories: one about pharaohs, the other about dinos.

These stories — about 12 minutes long — were interrupted every 90 seconds or so. The students answered whether they were …

… focusing on the story,

… thinking about something unrelated to the story (“It was fun being at the zoo yesterday”),

… thinking about their interest in — or abilities relative to — the story (“I’m not very good at this,” “I’m really interested in this”), or

… distracted by the environment (a slamming door).

Researchers also asked the students how interested they were in the content of the stories.

And — of especial interest — they measured the students’ understanding of the stories both immediately after the story and also one week later.

I’d Rather Know than Not Know

The results include lots of useful information: some surprising, some not.

First: unsurprisingly (to me), students who mind-wandered remembered less.

And, crucially, they remembered less both right away and AND a week later.

This point really matters. We know from Nick Soderstrom’s work that initial performance isn’t a reliable indicator of long-term learning.

If we had only short-term results, we might optimistically think that short-term memory problems would give way to long-term improvements.

But: nope.

Students who reported more mind wandering didn’t learn as much.

Second: surprisingly (to me), the students’ interest level didn’t matter.

That is: even the students who REALLY LIKE DINOS didn’t learn as much if they mind-wandered.

Interest doesn’t protect students from the dangers of mind-wandering.

Third: horrifyingly (to me), students lose focus roughly 25% of the time.

In this study, they spent…

… about 10% of their time thinking about something else (“the zoo”),

… about 10% of their time thinking about their ability/interest (“I bet I won’t remember this part”), and

… about 5% of the time distracted by the environment (the slamming door).

If we want students to learn 100% of the material, and they’re mentally elsewhere for 25% of the time…well, that distraction puts a firm cap on what they can learn.

To be clear: this study took place during the pandemic, so student were at home and participating on Microsoft Teams. We therefore can’t take this finding as an entirely reliable measurement of their off-task thoughts during class.

However, I honestly worry that they might be mentally off task even more during school hours. The average classroom has LOTS more people in it, and features fewer dinosaur videos…

Teaching Implications

I think this study (especially if others confirm its findings) encourages us to several tough-minded conclusions:

Mind-wandering really does interfere with learning.

It happens A LOT.

Students’ intrinsic interest doesn’t mitigate this problem.

Each of us will respond to those conclusions differently, but they do offer several suggestions:

First: reduce classroom distractions with energy and purpose.

Second: check for understanding even more frequently than we might think necessary. Doing so will a) help us know if they are mind-wandering, and b) help keep them focused.

Third: remain vigilant even if the topic seems intrinsically interesting. I might think that dinosaurs will keep students’ focus…but in this study they didn’t.

More broadly: I might spend some time looking in the mirror. How distracted am I? How much mind-wandering is a part of my thought routine?

After all: if mind-wandering hampers my own understanding, that result is as bad for me as much as for my students.


Cherry, J., McCormack, T., & Graham, A. J. (2023). Listen up, kids! How mind wandering affects immediate and delayed memory in children. Memory & Cognition, 1-17.

Soderstrom, N. C., & Bjork, R. A. (2015). Learning versus performance: An integrative review. Perspectives on Psychological Science10(2), 176-199.

Conflicting Advice: Mind-Wandering Is Bad, or Just Fine
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson

The Harvard Gazette recently posted a soothing headline: “When Wandering Minds are Just Fine.”

mind wandering advice

The subhead offers even more encouraging news: “The practice has no detrimental effects in some situations, study says.”

No detrimental effects. That sounds kind of great.

It also sounds a bit confusing. Here’s the title of another recent journal article:

Mindwandering While Reading Not Only Reduces Science Learning But Also Increases Content Misunderstandings.”

So: which is it? Mind wandering is just fine? Or, mind wandering hampers learning and creates misunderstandings?

Mind Wandering Advice, Part 1: Consider the Paradigm

These two studies arrived at dramatically different conclusions because they studied dramatically different situations.

In the language of psychology, they used different research paradigms.

One study had students read a science passage, and then write about the information and concepts they had learned.

The other study had participants look at a clock and press the space bar whenever it showed exactly 12:00. The clock was designed to show 12:00 every twenty seconds.

Now: which one of those two studies sounds more like the work you do every day?

Mind Wandering Advice, Part 2: Focus on Your Students

Given that these two studies consider such different activities, we can easily decide which one applies to us. Focus on the study that resembles your students’ work.

For the most part — I suspect — we’re interested in the research about students who read the science passage. After all, that study looks a lot like school.

In that study, researchers found that students who spent more time mind-wandering learned less science.

They also held on to more misconceptions about the science that they studied.

In brief: mind wandering harms much of the work that students do in school.

MWA, Part 3: Don’t Panic

At the same time, the 20-second-clock study can also give us some useful parameters.

That study makes a simple point. Sometimes — when the clock is approaching 12:00 — we need to focus clearly. Other times — when we’ve got 10-15 seconds to go — it’s just fine to mind wander a bit.

So: if your students can confidently predict when they’ll need to refocus, you don’t need to worry if they take some mental time off.

 

To explore this question further, you might look at Kevin Kent’s article called Drifting Away. In it, he explores the settings where mind-wandering just might benefit learning.

Brain Wandering
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson

AdobeStock_95637452_Credit

We’ve posted quite frequently about mind-wandering on this blog (here, here, and here — to pick just a few). This post introduces a comprehensive article about the brain activity that correlates with various mind-wandering states.

As John Leiff (M.D.) notes, when you just lie still and think about nothing in particular, your brain isn’t quiet; a well-defined set of neural networks is firing. This group is called the Default Mode Network (DMN, or DN), and it has gotten a lot of research love in recent years.

Lieff’s article explores — in detail — the relationships between different parts of the DN and different kinds of mind-wandering and meditation.

This comprehensive review doesn’t offer any immediate teaching implications. However — and this is a big however — if you’re interested in mindfulness, and want to use brain research to make you case to your admin team, you will benefit from knowing the information that Lieff offers you here.

Drifting Away: The Cognitive Benefits—and Perils—of Mind-Wandering
Kevin Kent
Kevin Kent

AdobeStock_58248806_Credit

You’re in the middle of a meeting or driving to work and your mind drifts off to…

…chores on your to-do list, or

…a recent argument with a friend, or

…the grand possibilities of your future life.

You may not even realize you’ve departed on this train of thought until a friend or coworker quips: “Earth to Kevin, are you with us?”

During lectures in high school and college, or while trying to complete a dense reading assignment, I often caught myself failing to pay attention to my immediate environment. Much of the time, I would snap out of this state with the rude awakening that I had no idea what the professor was saying, or even what the last page of text said.

Recently, however, I’ve started to wonder if there are benefits to mind wandering, especially for learning.

For instance, absorbed in my internal world on long solo car trips, I have come up with creative ideas for beginning a blog post. Many of us are familiar with the experience of coming to insights about a tough problem while engaging in a completely unrelated activity.

(The most common place I’ve heard of this happening is in the shower, although I still don’t understand why this is the preferred location for these “ah ha” moments; alas, the research doesn’t seem to offer an explanation for this).

Do my anecdotal observations hold any elements of truth? What do researchers say about the impact of mind wandering on classroom learning? I’ll explore these questions and more in the following sections.

What is Mind-Wandering?

Researchers generally define mind-wandering as a state of “decoupled attention,” where attention is focused inward on self-generated thought instead of on the outside world.  Of course, one does not need to be aware of mind-wandering to be mind-wandering.

(As an ironic side note, the potential for unaware mind-wandering makes mind-wandering challenging to study—especially because those who are less aware of their mind-wandering tend to mind-wander more. [1])

Importantly, mind-wandering isn’t a passive state as it may seem from the outside. Instead, it can consist of racing thoughts, deep consideration, and interesting associations. Emotionally, these self-generated thoughts can have a positive or negative valence, and thus even have implications for pathologies like depression. [1]

Benefits of Mind-Wandering

From an evolutionary perspective, it seems logical that mind-wandering must have served a functional, adaptive purpose. After all, given how widespread a phenomenon mind-wandering is, it would not have developed or endured if it always harmed, never benefitted, the species.

In their review of the mind-wandering literature [1], Jonathan Smallwood and Jonathan Schooler suggest several benefits of mind-wandering, including prospection and creativity.

1) Prospection

Often when people mind-wander, they contemplate situations that they might encounter in the future. For instance, a student trying to study the night prior to a big test may be distracted by thoughts of their parents’ or teacher’s reaction to a poor grade.

Even though this student may be distracted by such future-focused thoughts, this prospection might also offer real benefits. For example, the student might suddenly realize that, if she fails the test, the teacher will offer test corrections and extra-help.  

That is, prospective mind wandering can produce beneficial insights.

2) Creativity

There has been a lot of discussion in media and education circles lately about designing learning and schooling to promote creativity (see Sir Ken Robinson’s famous TED talk).

Some studies have suggested that mind-wandering can do just that.

For instance, Baird and colleagues [2] gave participants an everyday object—such as a brick—and asked them to think of as many potential uses for it as they could in 2 minutes. Researchers then gave some participants the opportunity to mind-wander, while preventing others from doing so. All participants then repeated their initial assignment: they had two minutes to think of distinct ways to use a brick.

Baird’s first key finding: during the second round, participants who mind-wandered during a mindless task thought of more ways to use a brick than those who had no chance to do so. That is: this mind-wandering promoted creativity.

Baird’s second key finding is perhaps more surprising. When mind-wanderers tried to think of uses for a new everyday object (a shovel rather than a brick), they were no better than those who did not mind-wander.

In short, Baird’s study suggests that mind-wandering boosts creativity in the middle of a cognitive process, not before it. Teachers who plan to promote mind-wandering should keep this scheduling note in mind.

Perils of Mind-Wandering: Reading Difficult Texts

Mind-wandering might benefits student with prospection and creativity, but it includes clear hazards as well.

In a 2013 study [3], researchers Shi Feng, Sidney D’Mello, and Art Graesser investigated mind-wandering and its relationship to reading comprehension.

Interestingly, they found that participants mind-wandered more while reading difficult texts than they did while reading simpler ones.

(This result is somewhat contradictory to some theories of mind-wandering. Reading difficult texts obviously requires working memory, and some researchers believe that mind-wandering needs excess working memory resources to take place.)

Feng hypothesized that readers of complex material could not build a deep and coherent picture of the text’s structure; in other words, they could not form a “situation model” that explained why events occurred or how a process worked.

In brief: text difficulty promotes mind-wandering, which in turn weakens the reader’s mental model and thereby reduces understanding.

This hypothesis helps explain my past experiences struggling to understand difficult information in history textbooks, or in a James Joyce story. Growing up dyslexic, I struggled with reading at its most fundamental level. To add to my woes, I would also find myself mindlessly tracking down a page…only to realize that the chores I was thinking about had nothing to do with the Joyce story I was supposed to be understanding.

Is there anything I could have done to curb my wandering mind and finally appreciate the literary genius of Dubliners without interruption?

How to Stay Focused

One intervention that seems to be promising is mindfulness training.

In a study by Mrazek and colleagues [4], participants completed either a two-week mindfulness program or a two-week nutrition class. Compared to those in the control condition, participants who meditated saw less mind-wandering, and enhanced performance on both reading and working memory tasks.

The authors hypothesized that the mindfulness intervention increased their ability to focus on the task at hand and suppress distracting thoughts [4]. With the numerous other benefits to meditation, it’s definitely worth a try!

(You might check out the many mindfulness posts by my Learning and the Brain blogging colleague, Rina Deshpande.)

Message for Education

So should we worry about that student who is mind-wandering during a lesson or while trying to read a difficult novel? The research seems to suggest that we should – especially during difficult problem-solving or reading.

However, some research also suggests that we should also recognize the value of task-unrelated, introspective thought, especially when either prospection or creativity will benefit learning [1].

We might also let students know that there is value in taking a break by stepping away from a project to do something less demanding: cooking a meal, or walking the dog. [2]

With the right blend of external focus and self-generated thought, our students can harness the benefits of mind-wandering while also staying focused at the right times to integrate and understand new information.

 

  1. Smallwood, J., & Schooler, J. W. (2015). The science of mind wandering: empirically navigating the stream of consciousness. Annual review of psychology, 66, 487-518. [Article]
  2. Baird, B., Smallwood, J., Mrazek, M. D., Kam, J. W., Franklin, M. S., & Schooler, J. W. (2012). Inspired by distraction mind wandering facilitates creative incubation. Psychological Science. [Article]
  3. Feng, S., D’Mello, S., & Graesser, A. C. (2013). Mind wandering while reading easy and difficult texts. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 20(3), 586-592. [Article]
  4. Mrazek, M. D., Franklin, M. S., Phillips, D. T., Baird, B., & Schooler, J. W. (2013). Mindfulness training improves working memory capacity and GRE performance while reducing mind wandering. Psychological Science. [Article]