Mind Wandering : A Negative Impact On Learning

Sam Anderson book reviewer for New York magazine and writer of many articles like, In Defense of Distraction, Anderson has primarily become interested in the way culture and our habits of reading has drastically changed with technology. In the article In Defense of Distraction, Anderson explores the poor attention one has developed throughout the decades and how this attention has distracted the human mind in a way that it has centered to our cultural attention. It is an inevitable habit we seem to apply in our everyday life’s, in our yoga class one a week, the cancer slowly spreading across our body, the pretty little liars show that is shown every Tuesday that seems to not be enough. We seem to pay attention all the time

Being aware of your surroundings both in a physical and mental sense can help bring out natural responses in humans. These responses can be emotional, physical and psychological and can be applied to many everyday life situations but one of the most interesting is the college setting. While in college, most students encounter multiple tests, quizzes, and a variety of other stressful assignments. Mindfulness can be defined as being mentally and situationally aware of what is going on in a person’s surroundings (Brown & Ryan 2003). Research has proven that the students who are mindful tend to have a reduced level of anxiety and stress than people who aren’t mindful. Situational

Almost everyone is preoccupied with happiness but yet the population seems to be increasingly unhappy. As society and human experience changes we can’t help but ask ourselves how can we fix an increasingly unhappy and dissatisfied society? Mindfulness meditation is a progressively popular solution to this issue. Mindfulness meditation stems from Buddhist tradition and is a practice that includes focusing one’s attention. Does mindfulness meditation have real psychological effects? And if so can they help improve quality of life? Many studies have been conducted proving that mindfulness meditation does have real psychological effects and can help individuals live a more meaningful and happy life. This can be proven through research related to neuroscience, depression and happiness.

In the essay “Multitasking can make you lose … Um … Focus” Alina Tugend exams why multitasking can make you lose focus. Tugend explains what multitasking is in the first section she also explains why it is bad. She then brings in a professor to explain how multitasking works in a scientific way. Alina Tugend then uses case studies to show how multitasking can cause loss of focus and impairment in motor activities. She then shows how multitasking can actually delay your progress on completing projects by constantly switching to different tasks. Tugend then sums it all up by trying to teach us how to better ourselves and to not multitask.

These effects of mind wandering has been shown to be inefficient towards learning and this is due to the fact that while we are engaged in mind wandering our attention is on our internal thoughts and feelings therefore mind wandering impairs the ability to integrate any new information from the external environment (Smallwood et al., 2007). Relating this principle to myself it was clearly evident to me that meditation serves as an antidote for a wandering mind it is beneficial in gaining wisdom about oneself, experiencing positive emotions and improving day to day learning (Moneyham and Schooler, 2013).

Have you ever stopped to think about what you were thinking? Or have ever spaced out and knew you were spaced out but didn’t want to space back out? Have you ever noticed that you are always thinking, even if you think you’re not thinking, you’re still thinking? Thinking has a lot to do with perspective in my opinion; it all depends on your own experience and thoughts about the situation you’re thinking about.  

Now it doesn’t matter if your mind wanders…. It doesn’t matter if you lose awareness altogether…. All that matters now is your own relaxation…. so just be comfortable… allow yourself the pleasure of sinking deeper and deeper into the comfortable lounge. Just let yourself drift into that

Multitasking: A Poor Study Habit by Noelle Alberto shows that multitasking is a bad thing do when studying. Ablerto gives four main points in her article, those points being, that multitasking while studying doesn’t save time, multitasking doesn’t prepare you for the business world, damages the students ability to learn, and causes students not to gain the trait that helps for paying attention. Throughout her article she provides evidence to prove these four points to a decent extent. I would disagree with the point that multitasking isn’t saving time because of having to switch back and forth between tasks. I don’t believe this point because personally I know I save time from multitasking while studying.

To fully comprehend the extent of the effect mind wandering can have on an individual and their education we must understand how learning in a classroom-based environment tends to work. Many educational tools that are used involve discourse comprehension. Discourse comprehension is explained as an ongoing process where the individual receives stimuli from an external environment, which is then encoded and translated into terms that can be understood and consistent with their internal depictions (Smallwood, Fisherman & Schooler, 2007). The most obvious explanation for mind wanderings negative impact on learning is that it represents a block or breakdown of the normal coupling or comprehension process between the external stimuli to the internal representations (Smallwood & Schooler, 2006). Discourse comprehension, or processing, is

Contrary to what I initially believe meditation is, prior to taking this course, which is the mental concentration on something, meditation is actually a thoughtless awareness of an individual’s surroundings.

Mind wandering is one of the most used mental activities a person uses throughout the day. You may be planning to make dinner for the evening, driving to the mall, or even when you want to go sleep. As we think about these things, our mind can wander to different ideas, or thought and we could arise at a new problem or situation. We have these creative thoughts when we are engaged in something else. Some research suggests that mind wandering can enhance creativity, but also has been shown to decrease reading comprehension and memory tests of working memory.

The purpose of this study is to inform the reader of the role that mindfulness training plays in the workplace. The study begins by defining mindfulness, reviews and summarizes the research material that has been done on mindfulness in the workplace and the benefits received from mindfulness training. Then, the focus turns to social mindfulness and empathy awareness, border theory and cultural intelligence theory as well as scales used in measuring mindfulness.

Meditation means to concentrate and connect with ones’ own mind, to explore identity and emotions in order to be aware of conscious, sub-conscious and unconscious thoughts. Meditation originates and has been has been practiced in Asia for thousands of years for different reasons such as increasing concentration abilities, religious purposes and also to train the mind. This essay will focus on how meditation affects brain plasticity (ability to change), emotionally and intellectually, leading to better performance and coping abilities in stressful situations. Things like attention span, memory functions and complexity of emotions will be further explored and may interest the reader since meditation can answer many questions on improving mental health that affects almost everyone. I will make the claim that meditation practice needs to be introduced early into educational institutions such as schools. Because evidence suggests that that meditation increases the volume of the cortex in the brain, leading to a higher and more powerful emotional intellect and cognition that improves things like memory, attention and emotional control. It is logical to assume that in order to alter thickness of cortex, mental thought functions and emotional strength, meditation should be introduced to children early in school for greater performance.

Mindfulness meditation consists of skills and methods to unplug from the busy world around you and from the busy 'monkey brain ' so often experienced in today 's life and particularly in ADHD, anxiety and depression. According to Jon Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness meditation trains and reinforces the ability to pay attention to the present moment, on purpose which helps to increase concentration, decrease anxiety, improve sleep, improve mood, decrease the stress response, and improve physical and emotional health. The studies are compelling about the health benefits of mindfulness meditation. In fact, studies show that mindfulness meditation actually changes the brain in positive ways. The cortex of the brain is thicker in certain areas of the brain in those who practice mindfulness meditation. And brainwave patterns are changed in healthy ways as well.

When discussing the relationship of brain and behavior, the materialist view of human experience runs into conflict with the historically dominant religious accounts. Recent studies, however, suggests that there may be a "middle view" between the two world-views. Religions, especially Buddhism, stress the role of meditation in one's spiritual growth. Meditation has tangible psychological and physiological benefits, though, which can be explained strictly in neurobiological terms. Understanding of how meditation affects the brain, and, by extension, human behavior, also gives insight into consciousness, the role of feedback loops, and the nature of the I-function.