Examining the Impact of a Single Session of Mountain Meditation on Attentional Scope

Abstract

Leading theories propose that mindfulness broadens attentional scope (Dreyfus. Contemporary Buddhism, 12(1), 41-54. 2011; Garland et al. Psychological Inquiry, 26(4), 293-314. 2015). Empirical research has not yielded clear support for a link between mindfulness and adaptive change in attentional scope. In addition, much of this work has focused only on perceptual attention, and attentional scope has been typically assessed after but not before the intervention. In this study, we assessed mood and three components of attentional scope, including perceptual (peripheral vs. central), conceptual (accessibility of mental representations), and thought-action repertoires (accessibility of thoughts and actions one is prepared to pursue) before and after a mountain meditation vs. relaxation vs. control intervention in novice meditators (N = 219). Contrary to hypotheses, participants demonstrated a broadened scope of attention over time regardless of intervention, but we observed that 75% of participants exhibited a broad attentional scope prior to the intervention. Exploratory analyses of participants who exhibited a narrow attentional scope pre-intervention (N = 51) suggested that both mountain meditation and relaxation broadened conceptual attention but that mountain meditation was associated with greater thought-action repertoires than relaxation or control interventions. Methodological issues for mindfulness research are discussed.