Our brains are inherently noisy. We persistently engage in involuntary activities like daydreaming, worrying about the past, and anticipating the future. The neuroscience of daydreaming and mind wandering has emerged as a field of study of particular cultural interest over the last decade, both for its influence on mental health when things go awry, as well as the ways we can harness mind wandering to facilitate creativity, memory formation, and more
Join us to explore how we can harness the power of minds wandering to stimulate creativity, increase focus, and boost our mood. We will also be treated to a live performance by renowned digital opera artist Amanda Gregory, who will perform her current collaboration with a team of scientists and technologists, drawing inspiration from research on cognitive psychology, neuroscience, psychophysics, and evolutionary biology.
Lead
Jonathan Schooler, PhD
A world renowned scholar and pioneer of the study of mind wandering, free will, meta-awareness, memory, creativity, emotion, and the stream of consciousness.
Schooler is an Osher Fellow at the Exploratorium Science Museum in San Francisco, as well as a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the Society for Experimental and Social Psychology. His work has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the Unilever Corporation, the Center for Consciousness Studies, the Office of Educational Research, the Bower Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, the John Templeton Foundation, the Imagination Institute, and the Fetzer Franklin Fund. He currently is on the editorial boards of Consciousness and Cognition, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Journal of Imagination, Cognition and Personality, and Psychology of Consciousness: Theory Research and Practice. Dr. Schooler is the author or co-author of more than two hundred papers published in scientific journals or edited volumes and was the editor (with J.C. Cohen) of Scientific Approaches to Consciousness, which was published in 1997 by Lawrence Erlbaum.
Agenda
5:30 - 6:00 PM: Gathering
6:00 - 7:00 PM: Meditation
7:00 - 8:30 PM: Panel and Discussion