Skip to the content of the web site.


Locations of visitors to this page

OOPS! Now, why did I do that?

Did you want to report an attention lapse?
Choose a setting:

Welcome!

OOPS! is a web site dedicated to discovering the absent and wandering mind and some of its consequences.

In this site we provide examples, often entertaining, of mind-wandering and its consequences, some essays on inattention, and an opportunity to contribute to our understanding of the causes and consequences of mind-wandering.


The Daily Oops!

One day Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was dismayed to find that an important volume had gone missing from his library. In a fit, he interrogated his secretary, butler, and servants before heading off to the Supreme Court. His wife, Fanny, simply held her tongue.
When he returned home, he amused to find the book in its place on the shelf, and above it a neatly printed sign, courtesy of Fanny:
"I am a very old man. I have had many troubles, most of which never happened."

- Anecdotage.com

There are a number of ways you can contribute to OOPS!:

Do you have any interesting anecdotes about your own or other’s absent-mindedness? If so you can tell us about them here.
We also have a number of questionnaires and behavioral assessments of attention and its failures as well as a number of related measures. You can help us by participating in our research here.