Abstract
Recent research suggests that frequently switching between various forms of media (i.e. ‘media multitasking’) is associated with diminished attentional abilities, a disconcerting result given the prevalence of media multitasking in today’s society. In the present study, we sought to investigate the extent to which the deficits associated with frequent media multitasking can be temporarily ameliorated via a short-term mindfulness intervention previously shown to produce beneficial effects on the attentional abilities of normally functioning individuals. Consistent with previous work, we found: (1) that heavy media multitaskers showed generally poorer attentional abilities than light media multitaskers and (2) that all participants showed benefits from the short-term mindfulness intervention. Furthermore, we found that the benefits of the short-term mindfulness intervention were not equivalently large across participants. Instead, these benefits were disproportionately large in the heavy media multitaskers. While the positive outcomes were short-lived, this opens the possibility of performing long-term interventions with the goal of realizing lasting gains in this population.
Highlights
IntroductionThe main question of the present investigation is whether a short-term mindfulness meditation intervention can temporarily ameliorate the deficits associated with heavy media multitasking
Both heavy and light media multitaskers were asked to perform a series of attentional tasks either directly after a bout of mindfulness meditation or after web browsing for the same length of time
Previous results have shown that individuals who engage in heavy media multitasking show diminished performance on attentional measures as compared with individuals who rarely engage in media multitasking1–6
Summary
The main question of the present investigation is whether a short-term mindfulness meditation intervention can temporarily ameliorate the deficits associated with heavy media multitasking. To address this question, both heavy and light media multitaskers were asked to perform a series of attentional tasks either directly after a bout of mindfulness meditation or after web browsing for the same length of time We had three primary predictions: 1) that, in a manner consistent with previous results, HMM participants would perform overall worse on the attentional tasks than LMM participants; 2) that, again in a manner consistent with previous results, both LMM and HMM participants would perform better on the attentional tasks after completing the short-term mindfulness intervention than after completing the control intervention; and 3) that the HMM participants would perform disproportionately better in the context of the short-term mindfulness intervention as compared to the LMM participants, due to the fact that HMM are likely to have a less focused default attentional state and should reap greater benefits from an intervention that encourages a more focused attentional state
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