For the past few minutes, I have been trying to control the weather with my mind. Thanks to an EEG headband reading my brain’s electrical activity, I need only direct my thoughts to a calmer place and the rain will stop, the sun will come out and the birds will sing – at least on my smartphone. But the harder I try, the harder it pours.
The device I am using, called Muse, promises to tame the wandering mind, and so reduce stress and boost focus. Our wandering minds tend to make most of us feel guilty. “We have anecdotal evidence that most people think they mind-wander more than average,” says of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Schooler has attempted to assess “normal” levels of mind-wandering in the lab by, for example, getting people to and interrupting them to ask their thoughts at random intervals. Such studies reveal we spend anywhere between 15 and 50 per cent of the time with our head in the clouds.
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Such a lack of focus might seem terribly inefficient, but probably isn’t. “It’s unproductive in the context of whatever you are doing currently,” says Schooler. “However, it is potentially productive in the context of whatever it is you’re thinking about. You might be reading a book and thinking about planning a party, and it’s totally compromising your ability to read the book, but you’re making progress on the party.” There is good evidence that a wandering mind is an evolved trait that helps us to think about and plan for the future – something that also fosters a uniquely human creativity.
Even so, might there be too much of a good thing? One common worry is that our concentration is dwindling as technology provides more distractions. A recent report published by Microsoft claimed that the average Canadian attention span was down from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2013 – .
at Western University in London, Canada, is sceptical. For one thing, there’s no standard measure of an attention span, he says. “What people want to hear is, how long can you concentrate for? And what should a child’s attention span be? But those are not concepts that are normally used amongst scientists studying the topic.”
Measuring perhaps the closest thing – the ability to stay focused on one task, known as selective attention – involves looking at attention shifts on the millisecond scale, such as asking people to state the colour of shapes as they pop up on a screen while ignoring distractions that pop up at the same time. Such experiments show a lot of variation in selective attention. It’s low in kids, perhaps because the developing brain has yet to master control over areas that process incoming sensory information. It then improves until the age of 20, when it plateaus until middle age, before diminishing once again.
But there’s no evidence technology is making us worse at concentrating, says Morton. Instead, it has just become so well-designed and intuitive that it takes advantage of our innate ability to think of several things at the same time.
If you are still worried, there are things you can do. Stay off the booze – , says Schooler. “When you consume alcohol, you mind-wander more and notice it less.” Technologies that promote thought control, like the weather-controlling app, could also help. “People who practice mindfulness mind-wander notably less,” says Schooler.
Read more: “Is your mind normal? 7 reasons it probably is”
This article appeared in print under the headline “Is my attention span normal?”
