Recently on Big Think:

A Wandering Mind Is an Intelligent Mind

Resent research suggests that mind wandering is associated with good working memory, itself a measure of intelligence, reading comprehension and IQ score.

Previously on Big Think:

Why Day Dreaming Is Good For You

“A wandering mind can protect you from immediate perils and keep you on course toward long-term goals,” says The New York Times. Researchers find benefits to being a bit airy. “There’s an evolutionary advantage to the brain’s system of mind wandering, says Eric Klinger, a psychologist at the University of Minnesota and one of the pioneers of the field.

However, also on Big Think:

Wandering Minds Unhappier

A study has found that daydreaming is not good for your mood. “Volunteers were unhappier when their thoughts were elsewhere. Statistical tests showed that mind-wandering earlier in the day correlated with a poorer mood later in the day, but not vice versa, suggesting that unhappiness with their current activity wasn’t prompting people to mentally escape. Instead, their wandering minds were the cause of their gloom.”

It’s true; those of us out here on the evolutionary vanguard with high IQs and super-sticky memories are nonetheless prone to spells of melancholy. The pressure and expectations just get to you, you know? Ah, fie; fie upon’t.

Seriously, if I didn’t spend so much time daydreaming while listening to music, it might be fun to carefully read Big Think and Miller-McCune just to keep track of all the irrelevant and hilariously contradictory studies they report.