[Xmca-l] Re: Call for papers on mind wandering and reading and writing

[Rod Parker-Rees]

I am looking forward to these papers too! I have always thought of mind-wandering and daydreaming as an internalised form of playfulness and a useful way of making it more likely that you will come across hitherto unnoticed connections and paths. But I think there is also much to be said for helping children (and adults) to develop their ability to move between wandering and more focused (even blinkered) forms of attention - one of which would be mindfulness. Wandering is lovely when you are not under pressure to be somewhere by a certain time but sometimes it makes sense to take a familiar route or to plan a route in advance!

All the best,

Rod

-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Andy Blunden
Sent: 30 January 2014 04:09
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Call for papers on mind wandering and reading and writing

Without any scientific justification at all, I tend to see it that way as well, Mike. I have a terrible deficit of focus and (much to Vonney's
annoyance) often don't see what is under my nose, but that is because my mind is wandering all the time, and I have no intention, and never had, of trying to do anything about that, to "discipline" my mind, because I absolutely rely on whatever it is which is going on when I am not thinking about something.
Some people are different. Vonney has incredible perception. She sees things (and smells, and hears) which are invisible to me, but she has great difficulty in seeing what is not there. This becomes an issue for us when it comes to interior design/renovations, etc. She always does a fantastic job, in the end, but it takes lots of work to visualise the object before it is produced, usually relying on finding pictures of the same thing done by someone else in magazine. The opposite for me. I can see it before it is built easily, but I do not have the same discrimination, so it is no use.
I would love to read whatever comes out of this call for papers. But I would be interested even more if it were not exclusively focussed on education and children. Us adults apprehend the world differently too.

Andy
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
http://home.mira.net/~andy/


mike cole wrote:
> David-- Mind wandering is the flip side of mindful meditation, right?
> There was an article, I believe in the NYTimes about the differential
> efficacy of mindful mediation on mental power that included a flip
> side of lack of creativity which mind wanderwind was supposed to take
> care of.
>
> Right?
>
> I believe this discussion bears an important relation to CHAT theory.
> But maybe I have the topic all wrong and its all in my, lets call it,
> imagination.
>
> mike
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 6:36 PM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net
> <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>> wrote:
>
>     What a ....er fascinating topic .... um ... I was going to say ... er.
>     Interesting, David.
>     andy
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     *Andy Blunden*
>     http://home.mira.net/~andy/ <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/>
>
>
>
>     David Preiss wrote:
>
>         Call for papers on mind wandering and reading and writing for
>         a special section of Learning and Individual Differences
>         The research on the impact of mind wandering on the learning
>         process and education is mixed. Thus, some researchers have
>         noted that mind wandering negatively impacts students'
>         performance on school related abilities requiring high levels
>         of concentration and metacognition, such as reading, attending
>         lectures or, more specifically, performance on standardized
>         measures of academic achievement. Yet, other researchers have
>         noticed that mind wandering is a regular part of everyday
>         normal functioning and have called attention to its positive
>         impact on emotional processing, creativity and problem
>         solving. Additionally, the research literature has reported
>         that there are individual differences not only in people's
>         tendency to engage in mind wandering but also in the content
>         of this wandering. These differences have consequences for how
>         adaptive mind wandering may be in everyday functioning and,
>         specifically, within educational contexts. Here, we seek
>         contributions that represent inno
>         vative research on individual differences in mind wandering
>         that: a) synthesize insights from multiple approaches and
>         perspectives on individual differences in mind wandering; b)
>         focus on the integration of research on mind wandering with
>         research on school related cognitive abilities with special
>         attention on those that are part and parcel of the core of the
>         schooling process (reading, writing and mathematics); c)
>         relate mind wandering with the development of abilities and
>         processes that, although not specifically academic, play a
>         relevant role in schooling and education such as creativity,
>         divergent thinking, imagination, and problem solving, among
>         others; d) and investigate the connection between mind
>         wandering and school related performance at different stages
>         of schooling, from elementary school through college. Special
>         consideration will be given to articles that place mind
>         wandering in the context of overall human development.
>         Original research and review articles wil
>         l be considered. Submissions allow two formats: full-length
>         articles (10,000 words) and short empirical reports or case
>         studies (5,000 words); the page limits do not include the
>         abstract, references, figures, or tables. Articles should
>         reach the editorial office before June 30th 2014 to receive
>         full consideration. When submitting articles, authors should
>         indicate that their manuscript is intended for the special
>         issue (mind wandering). Contact David Preiss
>         (davidpreiss@uc.cl <mailto:davidpreiss@uc.cl>) if you have
>         questions about the submission.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

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