# Flow and the Dynamics of Conscious Thought **Keywords:** ow, crea ve thought, mind wandering, cogni ve control, dynamics of thought **Abstract:** The ow construct has been in uen al within posi ve psychology, sport psychology, the science of consciousness, the philosophy of agency, and popular culture. In spite of its longstanding in uence, it remains unclear [a] how the cons tuents of the ow state ‘hang together’ – how they relate to each other causally and func onally – [b] in what sense ow is an ‘op mal experience,’ and [c] how best to describe the unique phenomenology of the ow state. As a result, di cul es persist for a clear understanding of the ow state’s structure and func on. A er explica ng the standard view of the ow construct (sec on one), I ar culate several basic ques ons regarding its nature and func onal roles (sec on two), and I argue that these ques ons are best answered by integra ng ow within broader streams of research on the dynamics of thought, on cogni ve control resource alloca on, and on crea ve thought (sec ons three and four). **Authors:** [[Shepard]]