<p>It seems that it is still a matter of debate whether animals are capable of mind wandering. For instance, there are a lot of publications about foresight, a future directed instance of mind wandering. Much of it comes from one group, e.g., </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Suddendorf T, Corballis MC. (2007) The evolution of foresight: What is
  mental time travel, and is it unique to humans? Behav Brain Sci. 
  30(3):299-313; discussion 313-51.</p>
  
  <p>Suddendorf T, Corballis MC. (2010) Behavioural evidence for mental
  time travel in nonhuman animals. Behav Brain Res. 215(2):292-8.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>But, for a review see: </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Cheke Lucy G., Clayton Nicola S.. Mental time travel in animals. WIREs
  Cogn Sci 2010, 1: 915-930.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Or for a quite current example, see: </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Osvath M, Karvonen E. (2012;7) Spontaneous innovation for future
  deception in a male chimpanzee. PLoS One (5):e36782.</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-05-24T02:53:49.113Z
can you give a quick summary of what the Suddendorf & Corballis group typically conclude?
Artem Kaznatcheev
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-05-21T07:26:24.967Z
2012-05-21T07:34:21.710Z
2012-05-21T07:34:21.710Z
H.Muster
<p>im new here, so maybe i do not answer according to the rules, please tell me if so.
i think the prove should be on the negative, because theirs no reason to believe animals do not daydream. 
if you ask a person if he can not daydream for a year.. he will probably answer he wont. also, you see people daydream from the moment they ware child's
so, what i mean is that if you think reasonably and look at the facts around you, you get to the understanding that people cant control on the need to daydream
if so, why cant we call it the nature of a humans
if so, when we look at animals, we see their nature and needs are very similar or even identical to humans. you see some animals got angry, fear, have sax, we also know they dream at sleeping, social needs, needs for being the leader, take control, ext... 
i cant see why is not reasonable to think that they have a certain amount of daydream that has been happening to them like it happening to humans. i believe you right scientificly you should prove you cant say they don't,  but reasonably it worth give it a try</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-08-05T23:25:14.357Z
Welcome to cogsci.stackexchange! For tips on how to write a good answer, please check out this help [doc](https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-answer). Your argument is logical, but could use some formatting and spell checks. (:
Seanny123
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-08-05T20:37:22.173Z
2014-08-05T20:37:22.173Z
register soon
<p>This is related to very interesting questions about the specific biological structures that evolved in the brains of our primate ancestors that differentiated them from all other animals in terms of human cognitive abilities and how that "new wiring" unleashed such  fantastic human creativity in every field of art, music, science and technology. It seems that the consciousness of other animals operate essentially in "real-time" mode whereas humans can access their memories at any time, even when the external stimulus is no longer present. It's almost like there is some kind of gate between conscious awareness and our memory patterns. In other animals that gate is closed when the stimulus is no longer present (vision, scent, sound, taste, etc). A dog, for example, no longer thinks about the fire or the squirrel it was chasing once the sensual inputs are no longer present. Humans, on the other hand, whether day-dreaming about the vacation they are planning, or contemplating the steak they had at yesterday's BBQ, have no difficulty with this type of thinking. Is this because some form of an open neural gate evolved in humans which allowed ones memories to be accessed at any time and thought about?           </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-06-15T19:41:33.860Z
You make a claim. Do you have any scientific arguments supporting it?
Piotr Migdal
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-06-16T02:02:42.017Z
Not sure what claim you mean. I ended with a question after speculating on what could account for observable differences between human and other animal behavior.
Steve d'Apollonia
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-06-16T09:34:20.547Z
You claim that animals live in the present and do not daydream. Do you have any other proof for that (other than your personal opinion)? For example, I do not know what happens in the dog's mind.
Piotr Migdal
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-06-16T20:28:32.803Z
I've never seen any clear evidence that a dog daydreams. I've seen sleeping dogs appear to be dreaming, but that's different than wakeful contemplation. There's simply no evidence for it. I see no point in trying to prove a negative.
Steve d'Apollonia
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-06-15T19:38:39.383Z
2014-06-15T19:38:39.383Z
Steve d'Apollonia
<p>A paper 
<em>Killingsworth et al., <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1192439">A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind</a>, Science 12 November 2010: 932</em> (or a <a href="http://www.uvm.edu/~pdodds/files/papers/others/2010/killingsworth2010a.pdf">free pdf</a>) starts with the following statement:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Unlike other animals, human beings spend
  a lot  of  time  thinking about  what  is  not
  going on around them, contemplating
  events that happened in the past, might happen
  in the future, or will never happen at all. Indeed,
  “stimulus-independent thought” or “mind wandering” appears to be the brain’s default  mode
  of operation (1-3).</p>
</blockquote>

<p>While the claim is supported for humans by the cited papers and their finding:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Mind wandering
  occurred in 46.9% of the samples and in at least
  30% of the samples taken during every activity
  except making love.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>I couldn't find a strong evidence that for all other animals it is not true. Even if it, arguably, may sound plausible for domestic animals, it seems less convincing for primates, elephants or dolphins (without a proper experimental support).</p>

<p>Are there any research on "wandering mind" for other animals? If so, do they support or refute the "unlike other animals" line?</p>

<animal-cognition><dreams><wandering-mind>
Do only humans spend a lot of time daydreaming (or having "stimulus-independent thoughts")?
Piotr Migdal
# Do only humans spend a lot of time daydreaming (or having "stimulus-independent thoughts")?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-05-20)

A paper
*Killingsworth et al., [A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind](http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1192439), Science 12 November 2010: 932* (or a [free pdf](http://www.uvm.edu/~pdodds/files/papers/others/2010/killingsworth2010a.pdf)) starts with the following statement:

> Unlike other animals, human beings spend
> a lot of time thinking about what is not
> going on around them, contemplating
> events that happened in the past, might happen
> in the future, or will never happen at all. Indeed,
> “stimulus-independent thought” or “mind wandering” appears to be the brain’s default mode
> of operation (1-3).

While the claim is supported for humans by the cited papers and their finding:

> Mind wandering
> occurred in 46.9% of the samples and in at least
> 30% of the samples taken during every activity
> except making love.

I couldn't find a strong evidence that for all other animals it is not true. Even if it, arguably, may sound plausible for domestic animals, it seems less convincing for primates, elephants or dolphins (without a proper experimental support).

Are there any research on "wandering mind" for other animals? If so, do they support or refute the "unlike other animals" line?

**Tags:** animal-cognition, dreams, wandering-mind


---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2012-05-21. Score: 5

It seems that it is still a matter of debate whether animals are capable of mind wandering. For instance, there are a lot of publications about foresight, a future directed instance of mind wandering. Much of it comes from one group, e.g.,

> Suddendorf T, Corballis MC. (2007) The evolution of foresight: What is
> mental time travel, and is it unique to humans? Behav Brain Sci.
> 30(3):299-313; discussion 313-51.
>
> Suddendorf T, Corballis MC. (2010) Behavioural evidence for mental
> time travel in nonhuman animals. Behav Brain Res. 215(2):292-8.

But, for a review see:

> Cheke Lucy G., Clayton Nicola S.. Mental time travel in animals. WIREs
> Cogn Sci 2010, 1: 915-930.

Or for a quite current example, see:

> Osvath M, Karvonen E. (2012;7) Spontaneous innovation for future
> deception in a male chimpanzee. PLoS One (5):e36782.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: can you give a quick summary of what the Suddendorf & Corballis group typically conclude?  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2014-08-05. Score: -3

im new here, so maybe i do not answer according to the rules, please tell me if so.
i think the prove should be on the negative, because theirs no reason to believe animals do not daydream.
if you ask a person if he can not daydream for a year.. he will probably answer he wont. also, you see people daydream from the moment they ware child's
so, what i mean is that if you think reasonably and look at the facts around you, you get to the understanding that people cant control on the need to daydream
if so, why cant we call it the nature of a humans
if so, when we look at animals, we see their nature and needs are very similar or even identical to humans. you see some animals got angry, fear, have sax, we also know they dream at sleeping, social needs, needs for being the leader, take control, ext...
i cant see why is not reasonable to think that they have a certain amount of daydream that has been happening to them like it happening to humans. i believe you right scientificly you should prove you cant say they don't, but reasonably it worth give it a try

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: Welcome to cogsci.stackexchange! For tips on how to write a good answer, please check out this help [doc](https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-answer). Your argument is logical, but could use some formatting and spell checks. (:  

---

### Answer by username_5 on 2014-06-15. Score: -3

This is related to very interesting questions about the specific biological structures that evolved in the brains of our primate ancestors that differentiated them from all other animals in terms of human cognitive abilities and how that "new wiring" unleashed such fantastic human creativity in every field of art, music, science and technology. It seems that the consciousness of other animals operate essentially in "real-time" mode whereas humans can access their memories at any time, even when the external stimulus is no longer present. It's almost like there is some kind of gate between conscious awareness and our memory patterns. In other animals that gate is closed when the stimulus is no longer present (vision, scent, sound, taste, etc). A dog, for example, no longer thinks about the fire or the squirrel it was chasing once the sensual inputs are no longer present. Humans, on the other hand, whether day-dreaming about the vacation they are planning, or contemplating the steak they had at yesterday's BBQ, have no difficulty with this type of thinking. Is this because some form of an open neural gate evolved in humans which allowed ones memories to be accessed at any time and thought about?

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: You make a claim. Do you have any scientific arguments supporting it?  
> **username_5**: Not sure what claim you mean. I ended with a question after speculating on what could account for observable differences between human and other animal behavior.  
> **username_0**: You claim that animals live in the present and do not daydream. Do you have any other proof for that (other than your personal opinion)? For example, I do not know what happens in the dog's mind.  
> **username_5**: I've never seen any clear evidence that a dog daydreams. I've seen sleeping dogs appear to be dreaming, but that's different than wakeful contemplation. There's simply no evidence for it. I see no point in trying to prove a negative.  

---

