Catch yourself daydreaming while washing the dishes again? If this happens often you probably have a pretty capable working memory, new research suggests.

　　洗碗的時候發現自己又在做白日夢了？新的研究表明，如果你經常做白日夢，那么你的工作記憶力可能會很好。

This mind wandering, it seems, actually gives your working memory a workout. Working memory is the mental work space that allows the brain to juggle multiple thoughts simultaneously. The more working memory a person has, the more daydreaming they can do without forgetting the task at hand.

　　走神實際上會鍛煉你的工作記憶力。工作記憶是大腦的工作空間， 能讓大腦同時在多種想法間跳躍。人的工作記憶容量越大 ，那在不影響工作的情況下做的白日夢就越多。

"Our results suggest that the sorts of planning that people do quite often in daily life — when they're on the bus, when they're cycling to work, when they're in the shower — are probably supported by working memory," study researcher Jonathan Smallwood, of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science, said in a statement. "Their brains are trying to allocate resources to the most pressing problems."

　　“我們的研究結果表明，人們在日常生活中，在公交車上，騎自行車上班時，淋浴時等時候，經常做的那類計劃很有可能都是由工作記憶來支持的”， 馬克斯·普朗克人類認知和腦科學研究所的研究人員喬納森·斯莫爾伍德在一篇報道中寫道。“人們的大腦試圖把資源分配給最緊迫的問題。”

Researchers studied groups of people from the University of Wisconsin-Madison community, ranging in age from 18 to 65. The first group was asked to perform simple tasks, like pressing a button every time they took a breath or clicking in response to a letter popping up on a computer screen; these tasks were so easy that their minds were likely to wander, the researchers figured.

　　研究人員對來自威斯康星大學麥迪遜分校社區中的幾組年齡從18歲到65歲的人員進行了研究。讓第一組人員執行簡單的任務，例如每次按按鈕的時候吸口氣，或者點擊電腦屏幕上跳出來的字母 ；研究人員推測，由于這些任務都非常簡單，所以他們應該會很容易走神。 The researchers checked in periodically, asking the participants if their minds were on task or wandering. When the task was over, they measured each participant's working memory capacity by having them remember letters while doing math equations. Though all participants performed well on the task, the researchers noticed that the individuals who indicated their minds had wandered more than others also scored higher on the working memory test.

　　研究人員每隔一段時間就檢查一次，詢問受試者他們是在工作還是在走神。當任務結束時，他們讓受試者一邊做數學方程一邊記憶字母，通過這種方式對他們的工作記憶能力進行了評測。研究人員發現，雖然所有的受試者都很好的完成了任務，但是說自己走神次數多的受試者工作記憶評測的分數也比較高。

"What this study seems to suggest is that, when circumstances for the task aren't very difficult, people who have additional working memory resources deploy them to think about things other than what they're doing," Smallwood said.

“這次研究似乎表明，當工作不是很難的時候，人們會有額外的工作記憶資源，可以讓自己去想工作以外的事情。” 斯莫爾伍德說。

Missing moments

走神瞬間

When our minds run out of working memory, these off-topic thoughts can take the main stage without us consciously meaning them to; for instance, arriving at home with no recollection of the actual trip, or suddenly realizing that they've turned several pages in a book without comprehending any of the words.

　　當我們大腦的工作記憶空間塞滿時，這些離題的思想會在我們無意識的情況下占據主導地位；例如，回到家卻想不起來實際的行程，或者翻了幾頁書卻突然意識到自己不明白里面的意思。

"It's almost like your attention was so absorbed in the mind wandering that there wasn't any left over to remember your goal to read," study researcher Daniel Levinson, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, a part of the Waisman Center for Brain Imaging and Behavior, said in a statement.

　　研究人員丹尼爾·萊文森在一篇報道里說:“你的注意力好像都用來走神了，沒有余下的用來閱讀。” 丹尼爾是威斯康星大學麥迪遜分校健康頭腦調查中心的一名研究生，該調查中心是韋斯曼腦成像和行為研究中心的分部。

People with overall higher working memory were better able to stay focused when the task at hand required it. Those who had low working memory often had their thoughts drift away from the task, and did less well at it.

　　工作記憶力較好的人，在手頭上的工作需要時，可以更好地集中注意力。工作記憶力較差的人，在工作時，思想總會偏離工作，所以工作完成的不是很好。

The findings add to past research suggesting these mind drifts can be positive moments. For instance, daydreaming has often been associated with creativity — researchers think that our most creative and inventive moments come when daydreaming. It's likely that the most intelligent among us also have high levels of working memory, Levinson noted.

　　結合以往的研究，結果表明走神確實對大腦有益。例如，白日夢通常讓人想起創造力。研究人員認為白日夢是我們最有創造性和創新性的時刻。萊文森提到，最聰明的人，他們的工作記憶力可能也比較好。