Mind Wandering
​“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”
- Paradise Lost, John Milton (1674)
“... the internal dialogue is what grounds us," don Juan said. "The world is such and such or so and so, only because we talk to ourselves about its being such and such or so and so."
- Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan, Carlos Castaneda (1972)
Whenever our attention is not engaged with what is happening around or inside us, we are experiencing mind wandering. It is so ubiquitous that we usually don't even notice it, despite being emersed in it for most of our waking hours. In fact, we spend approximately 50%–85% of our waking hours mind wandering, which for an average life span means about 33 years, 1 month and 3 days.
Average life expectancy: 73 years
Waking hours: 426 608h (16h per day)
We mind wander on average 68% of our waking hours
0,68 x 426 608h = 12 087 days =
= 33 years, 1 month, 3 days
Unfortunately, an experience so ubiquitous is still not well understood. For the past quarter of a century, mind wandering research has broadened considerably, yet one aspect of this phenomenon remains unexplored: what is it like to mind wander. We still know very little of how the experience of mind wandering is presented in our consciousness – what is the nature of the inner imagery, how do we talk to ourselves, what is the sense of others, what are the typical experiential atmospheres of mind wandering and how does all this relate to how we engage with the world.
All this and more is the goal of the interdisciplinary project Ecologically valid research on mind wandering: community-based and neurophenomenological approach. ​The small group of trained researchers is attempting to bring forth the details of their wandering mids. We are striving to catch, observe and describe experience of mind wandering as it unfolds in the wild – in our everyday life. Our goal is to gain in-depth scientific understanding, but at some point we want to devise the protocol which would enable others to get deeper insight into their own mind wandering and through that, deeper understanding of themselves.
What and how do we research?
What content do we wander through and in what way?
What attracts and guides our attention?
What feelings (i.e. atmosphere) do we recognize in the background?
How does our surrounding context get involved in mind wandering?
How is mind wandering connected with the experience of our self?
The Observatory research team, operating within the Laboratory for Empirical Phenomenology, aims to develop skills in observing, tracking, and recording instances of mind wandering to answer these questions in a deeper way over time. We will conduct our research by monitoring and recording our daily experiences in a natural environment by using the Curious mobile application.
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In the first phase of the project, we aim to refine our research paradigm and find an appropriate and valid way to collect data on various aspects of mind wandering, which would encourage broader future research in this field. Additionally, we want to make this method of research, by using the mobile app, accessible to a wide range of users, offering them the opportunity for an in-depth, yet straightforward, way to explore and track their own experiences.
We are going to organize a series of workshops and lectures on mind wandering and the broader scope of experience. Among the speakers are going to be renowned researchers in the field (e.g., Associate Professor Dr. Marieke van Vugt from the University of Groningen). These events are expected to begin in April 2025. You can find updates on events at Wanderings.​​​
Additionally, we will explore mind wandering through interactive podcasts that are going to be published on our YouTube channel, and through posts on our Instagram profile, both called Curious (about) Consciousness.
People behind the project
The project is financed by the University of Ljubljana. It is an interdisciplinary collaboration that brings together experts from the fields of neuroscience, empirical and psychiatric phenomenology, psychiatry, linguistics and psychophysiology. They operate within four faculties of the University of Ljubljana: Faculty of Education, Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Electrical Engineering. The consulting partner is the University of Groningen (Netherlands).
Postgraduate researcher
Cognitive neuroscience, consulting ​
University Psychiatric Clinic Ljubljana,
Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience
Institute for Developmental and Strategic Analysis
Postgraduate researcher
Mobile app development and design, psychophysiology​
Faculty of Electrical Engineering
Cognitive neuroscience, psychiatry, psychiatric phenomenology
Faculty of Medicine
Project coordination, PR
Computational neuroscience, consulting ​
University of Groningen (Netherlands)
Empirical phenomenology, coordination of the project
Laboratory for empirical phenomenology, Faculty of Education
Head of the project
Maša Poljšak Kus
Postgraduate researcher