Special Talk by Prof James Danckert

Talk details:

Boredom, agency, and interoception.

Boredom has been cast as a call to action, a self-regulatory signal prompting us to explore our environs for something more meaningful or purposeful to engage with. This casts the trait propensity to experience boredom frequently and intensely – so-called boredom proneness – as a conundrum; the recognition of the need for something meaningful to engage with, coupled with the failure to launch into action. I will present data from neuroimaging (fMRI, EEG) work and individual differences studies to show that boredom proneness can be cast as both a disengaged attentional state and a struggle to establish a sense of agency. In addition, I will show some recent work from our lab exploring the role of interoceptive awareness in boredom proneness. This work suggests that the highly boredom prone are hyper-aware of internal states but confused by them. This confluence may underlie the felt challenge to agency that is characteristic of boredom.

Speaker bio:

James Danckert was trained as a Clinical Neuropsychologist in Australia before moving to Canada to do postdoctoral research in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Western Ontario in 1999 under the guidance of Mel Goodale. He was awarded a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Waterloo in 2002 where he is currently a Professor in the Psychology Department. He maintains two research programs. The first explores the neural and cognitive bases of boredom and boredom proneness. The second examines the neural networks involved in building and updating mental models of the world. James’ lab makes use of behavioural studies, neuroimaging techniques (fMRI, EEG) and work in patients with neurological injuries. He has authored over 100 journal articles and book chapters and is co-author, with John Eastwood, of the book Out of my skull: The psychology of boredom.

Email: jdancker@uwaterloo.ca

Webpage: https://www.jamesdanckert.com/