Shower Thoughts.

Archimedes made his discovery climbing into the bath now a study shows a shower can have the same effect; it can lead to all sorts of bright ideas. Most of all those light-bulb moments. It is called shower thoughts and is more common than you think.

The trick is to let go and allow the mind to wander. The question is what causes this? Why should it be this way?

Well for starters mindless tasks are not nearly as mindless as we imagine them to be.

The authors of the study say the mind works better when there is a moderate level of mental engagement. To put it in simple terms; something that is really boring and does not require any thought does not spark more creativity than a simple task that requires a small amount of a person’s attention.

Here is a type of example. Say you stuck on a problem what do you do? Well definitely not something mind numbing like watching paint dry. Or the grass grow.

Instead you might go for a walk, do some gardening or have a bath. Even take a shower. The type of activities that require your moderate mental attention; and no more.

This study backs up the findings of a similar one in 2012 titled; Inspired by Distraction by Benjamin Baird, that really blew up. It fired imaginations in science, the media and in the public at large.

And their consensus was that mind wandering is a real benefit to creativity. At every level.

Results revealed that less mental demand led to more creative thought.

When you compare it to engaging in a demanding task, rest, or no break; engaging in an undemanding task led to substantial improvements in performance problems,” the study’s authors wrote in the 2012 report.

Just goes to show you can also over think something. As opposed to what they call incubating a thought. Not thinking directly about something but mulling it over at the back of your mind.

However, follow-up studies failed to duplicate these results. Irving thinks he knows why.

They weren’t measuring mind-wandering; but what they were measuring was distraction. Maybe they just tried too hard.

Irving adds that many of these studies also used lab-friendly tasks which don’t really apply to the real world.

The typical task that you use in mind-wandering research is called a Sustained Attention Response Test.

This involves visioning a stream of digits, such as 1 through to 9, and not clicking when you see a 3.

Only thing is it is not like anything in people’s daily lives.

To prove the theory about “shower thoughts,” the team created a new version of this 2012 experiment. They asked participants to come up with good ideas for using a brick or paperclip; after watching some three-minute videos. Which may have either bored or engaged them.

One group watched a “boring” video of two men folding laundry. The other watched and moderately engaged with the famous clip from the 1989 film “When Harry Met Sally,” where Meg Ryan’s character fakes an orgasm.

What we really wanted to know was not which video is helping them be more creative. The question is does mind-wandering connect with creativity when they watch the videos. And how does it happen?

On completion of the task participants noted how their minds happened to wander off. Although this led to a greater number of ideas; this was only after they had watched and engaged with a particular video.

Researchers say the results provide a blueprint for studying how it works in real life.

While showers might be out of the question they plan to scale up their experiment to involve people engaging in other everyday tasks; like walking down a street.

I don’t know about you but I feel a shower coming on. Wait maybe make that a bath!