The influence of a short-term mindfulness meditation intervention on emotion and visual attention

Thompson, C; Quigley, E; Taylor, A

Abstract

It has been suggested that mindfulness meditation (MM) improves psychological wellbeing via the focusing and broadening of attention. Whilst studies show that short term MM interventions can improve focused attention there is little evidence to support the broadening of attention. The current study investigated the influence of a short-term MM intervention on emotion and the scope of visual attention. Seventy participants completed a global-local processing task separated into three blocks of trials, with a ten minute break between each one. During the breaks a MM group engaged in a breath counting task and a control group engaged in a task of their choosing. Response times to global and local targets and a measure of self-reported emotional affect were recorded for each block. Mindfulness had no impact on attention however both positive and negative affect decreased for the MM group across the course of the experiment. The results suggest that MM can reduce the focus on negative (and positive) thoughts, indicating possible changes to focused attention, yet a short-term intervention is not sufficient to broaden attention

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 22, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jun 13, 2020
• Publication Date: Mar 1, 2021
• Deposit Date: Jun 8, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 1, 2020
• Journal: Journal of Cognitive Enhancement
• Print ISSN: 2509-3290
• Electronic ISSN: 2509-3304
• Publisher: Springer
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 73-82
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41465-020-00174-4
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41465-020-00174-4
• Related Public URLs: https://link.springer.com/journal/41465