The Gran Canaria Cognitive Research Center is thrilled to announce that one of its own projects, “Exploring the positive effects of mind wandering on statistical learning,” has been awarded the prestigious Proyectos de Generación de Conocimiento 2024 grant. This significant funding of 112,500 euros from the Agencia Estatal de Investigación marks a major milestone for our center.

This project, led by Teodóra Vékony, aims to challenge the widespread assumption that mind wandering is solely a negative cognitive process. The research will investigate its potential benefits for statistical learning, a fundamental process for acquiring knowledge from the environment. We plan to explore how different types of mind wandering, based on their content and emotional characteristics, interact with various forms of statistical learning. A key aspect of this research will be to examine if mind wandering can be manipulated using external techniques like sleep deprivation or brain stimulation. This could potentially enhance statistical learning and open new doors for optimizing cognitive performance.