World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!
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Rising Stars
2025

D-Index & Metrics

Rising Stars

D-Index
44
Citations
7213
World Ranking
491
National Ranking
77

Neuroscience

D-Index
48
Citations
8392
World Ranking
6209
National Ranking
2715

Psychology

D-Index
48
Citations
8392
World Ranking
5967
National Ranking
3234

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2025 - Research.com Rising Stars Award

Overview

Paul Seli is affiliated with Duke University in the United States and has contributed extensively to research in neuroscience and psychology. Their work primarily spans the fields of cognitive neuroscience and experimental and cognitive psychology, with significant crossover into clinical psychology, sociology and political science, and developmental and educational psychology.

The scientist's research has explored topics such as mind wandering and attention, creativity in education and neuroscience, neural and behavioral psychology studies, sleep and wakefulness research, anxiety, depression, psychometrics, treatment, and cognitive processes, eating disorders and behaviors, as well as flow experience in various fields.

Frequent publication venues for Paul Seli include:

  • Personality and Individual Differences
  • Psychology of Consciousness Theory Research and Practice
  • Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
  • Psychology of Aesthetics Creativity and the Arts
  • Frontiers in Psychiatry

Co-authors often collaborating with Seli consist of:

  • Nicholaus P. Brosowsky
  • Anya Ragnhildstveit
  • Nathaniel Barr
  • Daniel Smilek
  • Jonathan W. Schooler

Among notable publications from Paul Seli are:

  • "Humans versus AI: whether and why we prefer human-created compared to AI-created artwork" (2023), Cognitive Research Principles and Implications
  • "Boredom in the COVID-19 pandemic: Trait boredom proneness, the desire to act, and rule-breaking" (2020), Personality and Individual Differences
  • "Intelligence and creativity share a common cognitive and neural basis." (2020), Journal of Experimental Psychology General
  • "Rich environments, dull experiences: how environment can exacerbate the effect of constraint on the experience of boredom" (2020), Cognition & Emotion
  • "What's in a Task? Complications in the Study of the Task-Unrelated-Thought Variety of Mind Wandering" (2020), Perspectives on Psychological Science

Best Publications

  • Analytic cognitive style predicts religious and paranormal belief.

    Gordon Pennycook;James Allan Cheyne;Paul Seli;Derek J. Koehler

  • Mind-wandering with and without intention.

    Paul Seli;Evan F. Risko;Daniel Smilek;Daniel L. Schacter

  • Wandering in both mind and body: Individual differences in mind wandering and inattention predict fidgeting.

    Jonathan S. A. Carriere;Paul Seli;Daniel Smilek

  • Mind-wandering as a natural kind: A family-resemblances view

    Paul Seli;Michael J. Kane;Jonathan Smallwood;Daniel L. Schacter

  • On the Necessity of Distinguishing Between Unintentional and Intentional Mind Wandering

    Paul Seli;Evan F. Risko;Daniel Smilek

  • On the relation of mind wandering and ADHD symptomatology.

    Paul Seli;Jonathan Smallwood;James Allan Cheyne;Daniel Smilek

  • Not all mind wandering is created equal: dissociating deliberate from spontaneous mind wandering

    Paul Seli;Jonathan S. A. Carriere;Daniel Smilek

  • Wandering minds and wavering rhythms: linking mind wandering and behavioral variability.

    Paul Seli;James Allan Cheyne;Daniel Smilek

  • Network Neuroscience of Creative Cognition: Mapping Cognitive Mechanisms and Individual Differences in the Creative Brain.

    Roger E Beaty;Paul Seli;Daniel L Schacter

  • Motivation, intentionality, and mind wandering: Implications for assessments of task-unrelated thought.

    Paul Seli;James Allan Cheyne;Mengran Xu;Christine Purdon

  • How few and far between? Examining the effects of probe rate on self-reported mind wandering.

    Paul Seli;Jonathan S. A. Carriere;Merrick Levene;Daniel Smilek

  • Individual variation in intentionality in the mind-wandering state is reflected in the integration of the default-mode, fronto-parietal, and limbic networks

    Johannes Golchert;Jonathan Smallwood;Elizabeth Jefferies;Paul Seli

  • Putting retrieval-induced forgetting in context: an inhibition-free, context-based account.

    Tanya R. Jonker;Paul Seli;Colin M. MacLeod

  • On the relation between motivation and retention in educational contexts: The role of intentional and unintentional mind wandering.

    Paul Seli;Jeffrey D Wammes;Evan F Risko;Daniel Smilek

  • On the link between mind wandering and task performance over time

    David R. Thomson;Paul Seli;Derek Besner;Daniel Smilek

  • Mind wandering during lectures II: Relation to academic performance.

    Jeffrey D. Wammes;Paul Seli;J. Allan Cheyne;Pierre O. Boucher

  • Humans versus AI: whether and why we prefer human-created compared to AI-created artwork

    Unknown

  • Intrusive thoughts: linking spontaneous mind wandering and OCD symptomatology

    Paul Seli;Evan F. Risko;Christine Purdon;Daniel Smilek

  • Mindfulness and mind wandering: The protective effects of brief meditation in anxious individuals

    Mengran Xu;Christine Purdon;Paul Seli;Daniel Smilek

  • Restless mind, restless body.

    Paul Seli;Jonathan S. A. Carriere;David R. Thomson;James Allan Cheyne

  • How pervasive is mind wandering, really?

    Paul Seli;Roger E. Beaty;James Allan Cheyne;Daniel Smilek

  • Media multitasking and behavioral measures of sustained attention.

    Brandon C. W. Ralph;David R. Thomson;Paul Seli;Jonathan S. A. Carriere

Frequent Co-Authors

Daniel Smilek
Daniel Smilek University of Waterloo
Daniel L. Schacter
Daniel L. Schacter Harvard University
Jonathan W. Schooler
Jonathan W. Schooler University of California, Santa Barbara
Evan F. Risko
Evan F. Risko University of Waterloo
Jonathan Smallwood
Jonathan Smallwood Queen's University
Roger E. Beaty
Roger E. Beaty Pennsylvania State University
Boris C. Bernhardt
Boris C. Bernhardt Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital
Elizabeth Jefferies
Elizabeth Jefferies University of York
Daniel S. Margulies
Daniel S. Margulies Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS
Michael J. Kane
Michael J. Kane University of North Carolina at Greensboro

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