Ready? Here's your assignment: Watch a series of white, single-digit numbers flash against a black computer screen, each visible for slightly longer than one second. Your job is to press one key when the number three appears, and to press a different key for all the other numbers. The computer will respond to your actions with "Correct!" after each appropriate key strike or "Incorrect!" if you make a mistake.
It's easy, right? And it's somewhat fun at first.
But several minutes into this, your thoughts will probably drift from striking the correct keys to wondering how much longer you'll have to keep doing this. Then you might begin thinking about why one of your friends said that weird thing during class today, or what you have planned for the weekend. Meanwhile, your fingers are still pecking away at the keys.
This switch from thinking about the computer task to thinking about other things is called mind wandering, or daydreaming. It's something we're all familiar with because we all do it.
Daydreaming gets you in trouble if you're caught doing it during class, or in the middle of a basketball game, or anything else that requires focus and quick thinking. But here, with the computer task and its flashing white numbers, daydreaming isn't such a bad thing. Experiments like this one have taught scientists when and why our minds naturally wander, as well as how daydreams can boost brainpower.
Where Is Your Head?
Scientists have defined daydreams as private, internal streams of consciousness unrelated to our immediate circumstances or external tasks. Put simply, that means that daydreams are thoughts that have nothing to do with what you're doing while you're thinking them.
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Who's Your Cousin?
The great apes are among the most popular animals in most zoos. Their actions, facial expressions, and family life remind us so much of ourselves. Have you ever wondered, though, how we might look to them?
Is it possible to die of boredom?
To figure out if we can die of boredom, we first have to understand what boredom is. For help, we called James Danckert, a psychologist who studies boredom at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
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Palm oil is all around you. It’s in sugary snacks like cookies and candy bars. It’s in lipstick and shampoo and pet food.
SERGE WICH
Serge Wich’s favorite days at work are spent out in the forest, studying orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo or chimpanzees in Tanzania.
ELODIE FREYMANN
When you’re feeling sick, it probably doesn’t occur to you to try eating tree bark.
Guardians of the Forest
EARLY, MAKESHIFT WILDLIFE DRONES HELPED TO DETECT AND PROTECT ORANGUTANS.
APE ANTICS
The Whirling World of primate play
Dr. Ape Will See You Now
HUMANS AREN’T THE ONLY PRIMATES THAT USE MEDICATION.
THE LEFT OVERS
A lot has happened for modern humans to get to this point. We lost most of our hair, learned how to make tools, established civilizations, sent a person to the Moon, and invented artificial intelligence. Whew! With all of these changes, our bodies have changed, too. It’s only taken us about six million years.
SO, WHAT IS A PRIMATE?
What do you have in common with the aye-aye, sifaka, siamang, and potto? If you said your collarbone, you re probably a primatologist—a person who studies primates. If you’re not, read on.
