We're all afflicted with wandering minds. Those that are especially prone to gallop away during an easy task may just have more horsepower to begin with.
Working memory is the place where your mind holds and manipulates the things you're currently thinking about. If you can fit more items in there at once, you have a better working memory capacity--and odds are you score better on IQ and other tests. Previous studies have shown that when our working memory is busier, our minds wander less. Does this mean wandering uses resources from working memory, taking valuable brainpower away from other tasks?
Daniel Levinson, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, led a study of working memory and mind wandering. Scientists call wandering "task-unrelated thought" or TUT, as in the chastising sound you might imagine when you catch yourself drifting away from your work.
Levinson used two experiments to ...
