AUTHOR=McMillan Rebecca , Kaufman Scott B., Singer Jerome L.

TITLE=Ode to positive constructive daydreaming

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=4

YEAR=2013

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00626

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00626

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>Nearly 60 years ago, Jerome L. Singer launched a groundbreaking research program into daydreaming (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B78">Singer, 1955</xref>, <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B84">1975</xref>, <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B86">2009</xref>) that presaged and laid the foundation for virtually every major strand of mind wandering research active today (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B5">Antrobus, 1999</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B52">Klinger, 1999</xref>, <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B53">2009</xref>). Here we review Singer’s enormous contribution to the field, which includes insights, methodologies, and tools still in use today, and trace his enduring legacy as revealed in the recent proliferation of mind wandering studies. We then turn to the central theme in Singer’s work, the adaptive nature of <italic>positive constructive daydreaming</italic>, which was a revolutionary idea when Singer began his work in the 1950s and remains underreported today. Last, we propose a new approach to answering the enduring question: Why does mind wandering persist and occupy so much of our time, as much as 50% of our waking time according to some estimates, if it is as costly as most studies suggest?</p>