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Mind wandering as data augmentation: How mental travel supports abstraction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2020

Myrthe Faber Open the ORCID record for Myrthe Faber [Opens in a new window]
Myrthe Faber*
Affiliation:
Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboudumc, Kapittelweg 29, 6525 EN, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. m.faber@donders.ru.nl
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Abstract

Gilead et al. state that abstraction supports mental travel, and that mental travel critically relies on abstraction. I propose an important addition to this theoretical framework, namely that mental travel might also support abstraction. Specifically, I argue that spontaneous mental travel (mind wandering), much like data augmentation in machine learning, provides variability in mental content and context necessary for abstraction.

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Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 43 , 2020 , e130
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

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