Mindfulness as a Mediator Between Mind-Wandering and Creative Abilities

Abstract

In this study, the integrated roles of mind wandering (MW) and mindfulness on creative thinking were explored even though these have been regarded previously as separate and antithetical constructs. the current study attempted to refute this notion that mindfulness sit on one end of a spectrum apart from which mind-wandering sits opposite. Instead, it argued that mind-wandering is a core human state, and that healthy human functioning sits in the balance between MW and mindfulness. <i>Objective:</i> The study hypothesized that mindfulness mediates the relationship between MW and creative abilities (fluency, flexibility, originality and maintenance of direction). In particular, MW was analyzed in the light of a recent approach that posits a differentiation between deliberate and spontaneous MW. Mindfulness was analyzed by means of distinguishing its five different constitutional dimensions: observing, acting with awareness, describing, non-reactivity, and non-judging. <i>Materials and methods</i>: The participants comprised 321 undergraduate students aged between 18 and 23 years and enrolled at Cairo and Helwan universities in Egypt. The participants completed deliberate and spontaneous MW questionnaires, a mindfulness questionnaire, and subscales from the Arabic version of Guilford’s creative thinking battery and Torrance’s creative thinking battery. <i>Results:</i> The results revealed that mindfulness partially mediates the relationship between deliberate MW and creative abilities—namely, verbal and figural fluency, verbal flexibility, and maintenance of direction—whereas it completely mediates the relationship between deliberate MW and figural flexibility. However, mindfulness did not mediate the relationship between spontaneous MW and creative abilities.