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ISBN: PB: 9780226418919

ISBN: HB: 9780226238616

University of Chicago Press

October 2016

184 pp.

22.8x15.2 cm

1 halftone

PB:
£12,00
QTY:
HB:
£16,00
QTY:

Categories:

Wandering Mind

What the Brain Does When You're Not Looking

If we've done our job well – and, let's be honest, if we're lucky – you'll read to the end of this description. Most likely, however, you won't. Somewhere in the middle of the next paragraph, your mind will wander off. Minds wander. That's just how it is.

That may be bad news for me, but is it bad news for people in general? Does the fact that as much as fifty percent of our waking hours find us failing to focus on the task at hand represent a problem? Michael Corballis doesn't think so, and with "The Wandering Mind", he shows us why, rehabilitating woolgathering and revealing its incredibly useful effects. Drawing on the latest research from cognitive science and evolutionary biology, Corballis shows us how mind-wandering not only frees us from moment-to-moment drudgery, but also from the limitations of our immediate selves. Mind-wandering strengthens our imagination, fueling the flights of invention, storytelling, and empathy that underlie our shared humanity; furthermore, he explains, our tendency to wander back and forth through the timeline of our lives is fundamental to our very sense of ourselves as coherent, continuing personalities.

Full of unusual examples and surprising discoveries, "The Wandering Mind" mounts a vigorous defense of inattention – even as it never fails to hold the reader's.

About the Author

Michael C. Corballis is professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and the author of many books, including "The Wandering Mind" and "A Very Short Tour of the Mind: 21 Short Walks around the Human Brain".

Reviews

"'The Wandering Mind' is a pleasure to read – a lively book that will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers" – Thomas Suddendorf, author of "The Gap"

"Michael Corballis, the scientist, takes you by the hand and weaves through an avalanche of information from psychology, literature, history, and more to elucidate my favorite mental state – mind wandering. His high capacity for erudition, lucidity, and warmth have never shined more brightly" – Michael S. Gazzaniga