NOMADS: Neurophenomenology of mind wandering – Developing ecologically valid cognitive science
The NOMADS project was conceived as a response to a concrete scientific and methodological challenge: how to better understand mind wandering (MW), the mental phenomenon that occupies around 50% of our waking mental life, but remains elusive and often neglected in scientific research. This phenomenon resists easy classification and quantification, yet shapes our everyday experience in fundamental ways and may hold crucial clues to the nature of mind and consciousness.
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At its core, NOMADS aims to develop a novel interdisciplinary research methodology capable of capturing and analyzing MW and related phenomena. Through a combination of empirical phenomenology, cognitive neuroscience, linguistics, and psychopathology, disciplines that each offer distinct but complementary insights, we aim not only to advance the understanding of MW and related phenomena, but also to establish an ecologically valid approach to acquiring neurophysiological data and applying it in clinical mental health contexts.
Originality of the project
Conventional research in cognitive science and neuroscience typically relies on correlating mental activity with observable behavior or brain patterns. However, this approach falls short when it comes to mind wandering (MW), the spontaneous drift of attention from external tasks to internally generated thoughts, memories, or imagined scenarios. MW presents a fundamental methodological paradox: it occurs precisely when attention drifts away from measurable tasks, making it elusive to capture with standard experimental tools. Despite decades of research, even basic definitional questions about MW remain unresolved, signaling the need for a conceptual and methodological breakthrough. Our project takes an original and bold approach: we start not from external proxies but from what MW feels like and build outward from that understanding.
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Stage 1 (conducted from Nov 2024 to Oct 2025) of our research confirms this central insight. Our findings reveal a wide range of experiential dimensions that constitute the phenomenology of MW and demonstrate the necessity of using these insights to ground any future neuroscientific exploration. Based on the outcomes of the Stage 1, our primary goals for the Stage 2 are:
1) In-depth phenomenological data: Generate rich, multi-layered phenomenological data on MW while simultaneously developing and refining appropriate methodological approaches.
2) Interdisciplinary analysis: Perform interdisciplinary analysis of these data, including – but not limited to – linguistic, narrative, and psychological-psychiatric perspectives.
3) Neurophenomenology: Use insights into the phenomenological structure of MW to inform and establish a new, ecologically valid approach to collecting and interpreting neurophysiological data;
4) Clinical translation: Translate the research findings on maladaptive MW (e.g., ruminations) and experience-sampling techniques into clinical contexts with potential for diagnostic and therapeutic use.
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NOMADS is one of the few research initiatives that places subjective experience at the forefront of investigation, combining in-depth phenomenological reports with advanced methods from linguistics, psychology, and psychopathology. This paradigm shift promises significant breakthroughs: reshaping theories of attention and MW, informing clinical research, and advancing the integration of first-person data into cognitive neuroscience.
Organizational structure of NOMADS project
The organizational structure of NOMADS project is shown in Diagram 1. The project activities are organized around three primary research activities (RA1–RA3) and three methodological approaches (M1–M3). ​
RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
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RA1: Interdisciplinary exploration of the phenomenology of MW
Data on the phenomenology of MW will be collected through three complementary approaches (M1-3), combining in-depth phenomenological interviews with structured experience sampling and elements of community science. The analysis will focus on the following topics:
RA1.1 Verbal Thinking and Linguistic Structures
RA1.2 Rumination, Sticky Thoughts, and Maladaptive Daydreaming
RA1.3 The Social Dimension of MW
RA1.4 MW Structures and Narrative Identity
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The research activity RA1 consists of two components: a discipline-specific part (RA1.1–RA1.4) and a cross-disciplinary integrative part. In the latter, the entire project team will collaborate on integrating results and evaluating the validity of the data. The outcomes of this component will be published and will also serve as input for the next iteration of data collection (see methodological strategies below).
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RA2: Introducing Front-Loaded Phenomenology into Neurophenomenological Research
We seek to develop an ecologically valid typology of key experiential components of MW and a procedure for training participants to accurately and efficiently classify their own experiential states (following the strategy developed by Hurlburt et al., 2015). We propose a research design that effectively reverses the standard neurocognitive paradigm. Instead of assigning participants a task intended to elicit the target mental phenomenon, we will implement random experience sampling with highly trained phenomenological observers. At each sampling point, participants will categorize their current experience using a pre-developed coding framework. This approach will significantly increase the validity of physiological measurements, as we will no longer need to infer the mental state post hoc. Rather, we will have direct, first-person confirmation of what kind of experience was present during the recording, allowing us to correlate specific experiential structures with neural activity more reliably. ​We plan to conduct a proof-of-concept study to demonstrate the potential of the proposed front-loaded neurophenomenology approach. The study will focus on identifying EEG biomarkers for maladaptive MW. This part will be carried out in close collaboration with the University of Groningen, which offers strong expertise in this area (Jin et al., 2020; Yang & van Vugt, 2025).
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RA3: Clinical Translation of Findings and Tools
We will apply the results of RA1.2 to understand pathological MW and develop personalized treatments.
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Psychotherapeutic interventions: Application of the mobile experience-sampling platform (Curious app) in clinical contexts (affective and anxiety disorders), with the goal of enabling patients and clinicians to better monitor and reflect on thought dynamics over time, as well as dynamical evaluation of treatment interventions.
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Translating insights about the phenomenology of MW into improved neuromodulation protocols: A deeper understanding of the phenomenology of maladaptive MW and a more accurate typology, as developed in RA1.2, will inform the design of an adapted transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) protocol.
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METHODOLOGICAL STRATEGY
We plan to achieve the above goals through the interdisciplinary analysis of data collected via three complementary methodological approaches.
M1: The Curious App, A Mobile Platform for Ecologically Valid Phenomenological Research
We are developing a mobile research platform, based on Curious app, designed for use across multiple operating systems (links for iOS and Android) and capable of supporting a wide range of studies that require both behavioral and experiential data. The platform is grounded in the principles of descriptive experience sampling (Hurlburt et al., 2017), meaning that participants receive randomly timed prompts during their everyday activities.
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M2: In-depth Phenomenological Inquiry with Expert Participants – Observatory 2
Our second key data source is based on the SROE method (Sampling Reflectively Obtained Experience; Kordeš & Demšar, 2021). This is a longitudinal study involving a dedicated group of expert participants trained in high-resolution introspection and systematic documentation of their own experiences. This group, active since November 2024, is known as Observatory 2 (so named because it marks the second iteration of such research – results from the first are reported in Kordeš et al., 2019). The group’s mission is to uncover underlying structures of consciousness – those dimensions of experience that are not readily accessible to untrained observers.
M3: Collection of MW-Related Legacy Data
Our decision to incorporate legacy data, i.e., previously unexamined data from past research projects, aligns with the principles of open science, which promote data reuse to (a) integrate diverse datasets for more robust findings, and (b) reduce the burden on research participants, particularly vulnerable groups such as psychiatric patients. This approach expands our data corpus by including cases that are often treated as outliers, as they involve clinical populations. Yet it is precisely these cases that contribute a critical layer to our analysis, especially with respect to the clinical translation of our findings.
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M1 and M2 are central not just as data collection tools, but as methodological innovations in their own right. A key challenge in cognitive science, especially in MW research, is the validity of experiential data, given the lack of training in introspection among participants and high intersubjective variability. This is further complicated by the ethical tension that inquiry itself can alter the experience being studied. Our project addresses these challenges directly. Data collection methods M1 and M2 aim to generate highly valid data while also enhancing participants’ self-understanding, an effect supported by prior research (e.g., Petitmengin et al., 2007).
NOMADS timeline
Diagram 2 outlines the timeline of research and other project activities, milestones and illustrates data flow.
Interdisciplinary research team
The NOMADS project is intrinsically interdisciplinary. Interdisciplinarity is not an add-on to an otherwise mono-disciplinary structure; rather, it is structurally essential for carrying out the research and innovation we envision (see Diagram 1). Due to integrative nature of the project, we intentionally avoided defining isolated work packages. Instead, the entire research process is designed as a continuous, collective effort. The organizational scheme and project timeline clearly reflect this principle. The entire project team meets regularly for interdisciplinary integration activities (see Diagram 2, “interdisciplinary integration” under RA1). These meetings include the synthesis of disciplinary analyses, assessment of data validity, review of user experience (Curious app), and a reflective evaluation of all ongoing work. The outcomes of these integration sessions directly shape the next iterations of data collection and feed into all research activities. In addition, we hold informal gatherings that serve no specific research purpose but enable spontaneous knowledge exchange, vocabulary alignment, and the strengthening of group cohesion.
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The NOMADS researchers see this project as an opportunity to radically rethink cognitive science. We share a vision of a future in which the conceptual map of the mind is organized not by the legacy divisions of fields, but by phenomena themselves. The last major effort to integrate disciplines within cognitive science occurred during the cybernetics era, when diverse fields worked together, attempting to model the mind as an information-processing system. Since then, for over half a century, cognitive science has largely remained fragmented, confined to a few core disciplines without offering a fully integrated epistemology.
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Our project offers a concrete step toward a new paradigm: instead of defining the mind in terms of neural processes, lived experience, or computational models in isolation, we promote a phenomenon-first approach – to study mental phenomena such as MW and integrate disciplinary insights around them. This approach is still in its early stages, with roots in the work of Varela and Lutz (Lutz et al., 2024) and recent efforts by Hurlburt et al. (2017), but it has yet to be fully realized. We hope that NOMADS can serve as a proof of concept for the possibility of truly integrated cognitive science.
Key researchers
prof. dr. Urban Kordeš
Center for Cognitive Science, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana
Urban Kordeš is a professor of cognitive science at UL Faculty of Education, where he leads the Center for Cognitive Science. He holds a degree in mathematical physics and earned a MSc and PhD in cognitive science. His research focuses on developing frameworks for the empirical investigation of subjectivity, including methodologies for studying the core structures of consciousness and exploring subjective experience in everyday life. He is actively involved in promoting interdisciplinary and collaborative research and teaching. Kordeš co-developed the international joint-degree program in cognitive science (MEi:CogSci) with four European universities, founded the Laboratory for Empirical Phenomenology, co-founded the Slovenian Cognitive Science Association, and leads a learning community within the EUTOPIA university alliance. He has published over 100 academic works in top journals (e.g., Consciousness and Cognition) and in volumes from MIT Press and Routledge, and served as principal investigator on numerous interdisciplinary research and educational projects.
prof. dr. Gregor Geršak
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana
Gregor Geršak is a full professor of electrical engineering at the UL Faculty of Electrical Engineering. He has advanced his interdisciplinary expertise in measurement technology, in collaboration with the Institute of Microbiology and Immunology at the UL Faculty of Medicine, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (Germany), Jožef Stefan Institute (Slovenia), and UC Berkeley. Prof. Geršak has led and participated in several national and international research projects, including those funded by ARIS, EU FP5 and FP6, EMRP, EMPIR, and EPM. A former Fulbright Fellow, he is also a recipient of the Vidmar Award for Excellence in Teaching. He leads the ARIS research program Metrology and Quality and actively mentors student theses, doctoral projects, and student research initiatives. He is committed to promoting electrical engineering and science more broadly and has co-authored five undergraduate textbooks. His work spans metrology, biomedical instrumentation, and applied physiology, with a current focus on psychophysiology, especially electrodermal activity, skin temperature, facial thermography, and heart rate monitoring. He is particularly interested in the accuracy, calibration, and use of wearable devices in psychology, education, and sports.
prof. dr. Borut Škodlar
Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana
Borut Škodlar is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, Head of the Psychotherapy Unit at the University Psychiatric Clinic Ljubljana and Associate Professor at the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana. He also lectures at the Faculty of Health Sciences, the Faculty of Theology and the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television. He is the President of the Slovenian Society for Psychotherapy of Psychoses and a member of the editorial board of Psychopathology. His research and clinical work is based on phenomenological qualitative research and the application of clinical-phenomenological insights to psychotherapy. A narrower area within psychotherapy to which he is devoted both theoretically, clinically in research and in practice is the psychotherapy of psychotic disorders. Related to this is his interest in all extreme psychic states and their relationships, similarities and differences, including mystical states, states of utter despair and suicidality in relation to psychotic states. He has also published on all these subjects in professional and scientific journals and in the form of monographs. He has been and continues to be a mentor to residents in psychiatry and PhD students in these fields and has participated and is participating in several Slovenian and international research projects in these areas.
prof. dr. Tatjana Marvin Derganc
Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana
Tatjana Marvin Derganc is a full professor of general linguistics at the Department of Comparative and General Linguistics, UL. She earned her PhD in linguistics from MIT in 2003. Her research, grounded in Chomskyan theory, focuses on morphology and syntax in Slovenian and cross-linguistic contexts. She engages in interdisciplinary work, collaborating with experts in medicine, psychology, and neurolinguistics to study language impairments in neurodegenerative conditions. She also partners with the Division of Otorhinolaryngology to develop clinical auditory perception tests. She teaches general linguistics and at the Cognitive Science MA program. She has held several leadership roles: vice-dean (2015–17), and head of the UL Doctoral School (2021–25).