Mindfulness Meditation Influences Implicit but Not Explicit Coding of Temporal Simultaneity

Abstract

In the meditative state time appears to slow down and in the present moment it expands. However, to date, there is no investigation of the effect of meditative state on the structure of the “psychological moment”; this is the measurable, minimal duration of the moment “now.” In this study, we examined the effect on the psychological moment of a mindfulness intervention against an intervention in which participants listened to classical music. The psychological moment was measured using a simultaneity-detection paradigm from which the threshold between reports that two targets changed luminance simultaneously or with an asynchrony is normally taken as the duration of the moment. In line with previous research, this paradigm allowed for examination of the effects of the subthreshold synchronized, or asynchronized target onsets, which occurred prior to the luminance change of the targets. While there was no overall difference in the psychological moment pre- and post-, and as a function of the type of intervention, a bias against reporting simultaneity following presentation of a subthreshold asynchrony, which lowered thresholds and so shortened the psychological moment, was reduced after the mindfulness intervention. From this we conclude that even brief mindfulness meditation can encourage a more focalized attentional response, which can in turn be used to normalize psychological time.