Can You Watch Paint Dry?

weirdly accurate.

    Can You Watch Paint Dry?

    How often does my mind wander?

    Probably about half the time, and this mind wandering test lets you count your own. In a 2010 study, an iPhone app asked 2,250 people at random moments of their day whether they were thinking about something other than what they were doing, and the answer was yes in 46.9% of those moments. Here you get asked the same kind of question while you watch paint dry.

    The method is experience sampling with thought probes. You watch a freshly painted wall dry for about two minutes, in three stretches that get duller: fewer drips to catch, and longer waits. Seven times, at moments you can’t predict, the test asks where your mind just was: on the paint, somewhere else, or blank. Those three answers follow Andrillon and colleagues’ 2021 study, in which 26 adults doing a dull tapping task were somewhere else about 41% of the time and blank about 12%. After “somewhere else” or “blank”, it also asks whether you had noticed before the question, because wandering people don’t notice is common, and in Smallwood and colleagues’ 2007 study it was the kind that went with slips in a lab task. Your result counts the times you were on the paint, splits the rest into wandering and blanking, shows whether duller paint made it worse, and sets your share beside those two studies.

    It is not a test for ADHD or any attention problem, and not a diagnosis: everyone’s mind wanders. The score is seven answers about yourself from one sitting, so a single answer moves it a lot. And the way people are asked changes what they report; Seli and colleagues found in 2013 that longer gaps between questions alone raise reported wandering. Treat the comparisons as reference points, not a ranking.

    What the test measures

    One thing: how often your mind leaves a dull task, and whether you notice when it does.

    The task

    • Experience sampling with thought probes: you are interrupted at unpredictable moments and asked about the moment just before
    • A freshly painted wall drying over about two minutes, in three stretches (wet, tacky, nearly dry), each duller than the last
    • Seven questions, grouped two, two and three, 8 to 19 seconds apart and spreading out as the paint dries; the intro tells you all this before you start
    • Three answers, as in Andrillon et al. (2021): on the paint, somewhere else (mind wandering) or blank (mind blanking); after either of the last two, “Had you noticed before I asked?”
    • Optional drips: tap to catch paint running down the wall. Nothing is timed, and drips don’t count toward the score

    Your result

    • How many of the seven times you were on the paint, with a name for your run (our wording, not a norm)
    • How the other times split into wandering and blanking, and how many of them you hadn’t noticed yourself
    • Whether your mind left more often as the paint got duller, from the first stretch to the last
    • Your share beside two reference points, a lab task (Andrillon et al., 2021) and daily life (Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010), with no percentile
    • Each question in order, the drips you caught before each answer, why minds wander, and a shareable card and challenge link

    Before you start

    • About two minutes, free, no sign-up
    • Works on a phone or a computer; on a keyboard, Space or Enter also catches a drip
    • Sound is optional: a soft bell comes with each question, which also appears on screen
    • Answer what was true. There is no right answer and no clock on answering, and if you switch tabs the wall waits for you

    Mind wandering test FAQ

    Is this test free? Do I need to sign up to see my result?

    Yes, it’s free, and there’s nothing to sign up for: no account, no email, no payment. Your result appears on this page the moment you finish, and you can share it or play again straight away.

    Is there a test for mind wandering?

    Yes. Researchers measure mind wandering with thought probes: during a task, they interrupt at unpredictable moments and ask whether the person’s mind was on the task or somewhere else. The paint-drying test does the same, with seven probes over about two minutes, three answers (on the task, somewhere else, blank) and a follow-up on whether you had noticed. It gives you a count of your own, not a clinical score.

    How often does the average person’s mind wander?

    About half the time in everyday life. In Killingsworth and Gilbert’s 2010 study, 2,250 people asked by an iPhone app at random moments said they were thinking about something other than what they were doing in 46.9% of samples, and at least 30% of the time during every activity but one. In a dull lab task, the 26 adults in Andrillon and colleagues’ 2021 study were mind wandering about 41% of the time and blank about 12%.

    How accurate is a mind wandering test?

    Only as accurate as the answers you give. Thought probes depend on people reporting where their mind just was, and how they are asked changes the result. A 2018 review by Yana Weinstein counted at least 69 ways of asking across 145 studies, and Seli and colleagues (2013) found reported wandering rose from about 46% when 101 people were asked every 30 seconds or so to about 79% at about every 3 minutes. With seven questions, one answer moves the score a lot.

    What is mind blanking?

    Mind blanking is when the mind isn’t on anything at all, rather than on something else, and researchers treat it as separate from mind wandering. In Andrillon and colleagues’ 2021 study, people reported it in about 12% of probes during a dull task. Both blanking and wandering were preceded by small, sleep-like slow waves in parts of their awake brains.

    Why does my mind wander when I’m bored?

    Easy, routine tasks leave the mind free. In Mason and colleagues’ 2007 study, people’s minds wandered more during a well-practised task than during a new one, and a set of brain regions called the default network was more active when they did. People often don’t notice: Schooler and colleagues (2011) describe the mind as only now and then aware that it has wandered.

    Does a wandering mind mean I have ADHD?

    No. Everyone’s mind wanders, and the paint-drying test cannot tell you whether you have ADHD or any other attention problem. It is not a diagnosis and does not measure intelligence; it counts seven answers from one short sitting. If you are worried about your attention, talk to a doctor. The US National Institute of Mental Health has background on ADHD.

    How long does the paint-drying test take?

    About two minutes. The watching takes roughly a minute and a half, spread over three stretches, plus the time you spend on seven questions. The test works on a phone or a computer. A challenge link carries only which of your seven answers were “on the paint”, written in the part of the address after the # sign.

    Where the numbers come from

    There is no percentile. Your share of “somewhere else” and “blank” answers is set beside two published figures that were gathered in different ways: Andrillon et al. (2021) asked 26 adults every 30 to 70 seconds during a dull tapping task (the figures from its digit version are used), and Killingsworth & Gilbert (2010) sampled 2,250 people in daily life, with no “blank” answer. The 46.9% figure is as reported by the Harvard Gazette and by Ward & Wegner (2013); we have not read the full Science paper. The site does not publish its own players’ data.

    How the score works

    Thought probe

    A question that interrupts the task at a moment you can’t predict and asks what was in your mind just before it. The timing is shuffled so that you can’t get ready for it.

    On the paint, somewhere else, blank

    Your score is the number of “on the paint” answers out of seven. “Somewhere else” is mind wandering: thinking about something unrelated to the task. “Blank” is mind blanking: not thinking about anything, which researchers treat as a state of its own (Ward & Wegner, 2013).

    Noticed or not

    After “somewhere else” or “blank”, you say whether you had noticed before the question. Times you hadn’t noticed are counted apart, as in studies of meta-awareness (Schooler et al., 2011).

    Getting duller

    The share of off-the-paint answers in the last stretch (three questions) is compared with the first (two). A change of more than 20 percentage points counts as rising or falling.

    Names

    Seven on the paint: All here. Five or six: Mostly here. Three or four: Half here. One or two: Drifter. None: Far away. These are our names for one run of seven, not norms.