来源：《今日心理学》
原文刊登日期：2022年3月8日
There are probably times during the day when your mind wanders and spends a few minutes imagining things you know are not real. Should that worry you? There is some evidence that mind-wandering hinders reading comprehension. Such consequences, however, must be weighed against growing evidence that mind-wandering also significantly benefits core psychological and emotional processes like autobiographical planning and creative problem-solving. It seems that most of us are fully aware that we concentrate less when we daydream but that this is a price we’re willing to pay.
一天中可能有那么几次，你会走神，花几分钟想象一些你知道不是真实的事情。这会让你担心吗？有证据表明，走神会妨碍阅读理解。然而，这种结果必须与越来越多的证据相权衡，这些证据表明，走神也显著有利于核心心理和情感过程，如自传式规划和创造性解决问题。我们大多数人似乎都充分意识到，当我们做白日梦的时候，注意力会减少，但这是我们愿意付出的代价。
In a situation where I don’t need to concentrate, I am happy to let my attention drift. I might even enjoy a mildly thrill as my thoughts flutter away. We plan our life in daydreams, and while the future we imagine might be overly optimistic, the practice is still productive and forward-looking. Even better, by releasing us from the annoying constraints of reality, daydreams allow us to think more creatively about the problems of today and the possibilities of tomorrow. This facilitates imagination, problem-solving, and the ability to reach conclusions our rational minds might never permit if we were concentrating fully. Brain-scan studies have found that, contrary to expectations, our brains are more active when our minds wander than when we are focused on routine tasks. It had previously been thought that the only part of the brain active during daydreams was the “default network,” which is associated with low-level, routine mental activity. This research, however, revealed that the brain’s “executive network,” concerned with complex, high-level problem-solving, is also activated when we daydream. Far from idle, then, our minds are actually hyper-active when they drift away.
在我不需要集中注意力的情况下，我很乐意让我的注意力漂流。当我的思绪飘荡时，我甚至可能会享受到一种轻微的兴奋。我们在白日梦中规划我们的生活，虽然我们想象的未来可能过于乐观，但这种做法仍然是富有成效和前瞻性的。更妙的是，白日梦让我们从现实的烦人约束中解脱出来，让我们能够更有创造性地思考今天的问题和明天的可能性。这有助于想象力、解决问题和得出结论的能力，如果我们全神贯注的话，我们的理性思维可能永远不会允许这样的结论。大脑扫描研究发现，与预期相反，我们的大脑在走神时比专注于常规任务时更活跃。此前，人们一直认为，做白日梦时大脑中唯一活跃的部分是“默认网络”，而“默认网络”与低水平、常规的心理活动有关。然而，这项研究表明，当我们做白日梦时，大脑的“执行网络”——与复杂、高层次的问题解决有关——也会被激活。因此，我们的大脑远不是闲着的，当它们游离的时候，实际上是非常活跃的。
Such findings suggest increasing the value we place on daydreaming. We might lose focus on the task we set out to do, but that may just be the brain’s way of telling us it has more important things to think about: relationships, goals, or valuable general reflection. We could even benefit by consciously carving out some time and space to allow our mind to wander and see where it takes us.
这些发现表明，我们应该更加重视白日梦。我们可能会失去对自己着手做的任务的关注，但这可能只是大脑在告诉我们，它有更重要的事情要考虑：人际关系、目标或有价值的总体反思。我们甚至可以有意识地留出一些时间和空间，让我们的思想漫游，看看它会把我们带到哪里，从而受益匪浅。