Abstract
It has been suggested that mindfulness meditation (MM) improves psychological well-being 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 10-min 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.
Highlights
Mindfulness has been described as a conscious state of mind that is attained by attending non-judgementally to the current moment (Bishop et al 2004)
There was no significant difference between the two groups; there was a significant effect of target feature
Performance in the global-local task improved across the course of the experiment and participants showed a consistent global-precedence effect; this did not vary between the mindfulness meditation (MM) and the control group
Summary
Mindfulness has been described as a conscious state of mind that is attained by attending non-judgementally to the current moment (Bishop et al 2004). Wolkin (2015) proposes that MM enhances well-being as the practice incorporates the allocation of attention towards a specific stimulus (e.g. the movement of breath), disengagement from negative thoughts and distractions She proposes that the deliberate concentration of attention on the current experience shifts focus from ruminating on negative thoughts to the acceptance of other information (effectively viewing MM as a method of distraction that directs resources elsewhere). Research shows that short-term MM can have a beneficial impact on attention; the work cited above concentrates on the early stages of the MMT (the control of attention and the focus of attention) They do not show whether improvements in attention are paired with changes in emotion (Zeidan et al 2010 did include a measure of self-reported emotional affect but found that increases in positive affect did not vary between the MM group and the control group). It was predicted that both groups would show the global bias in the first block, but the bias towards global processing would become more apparent for the MM group than the control group in the second and third blocks as positive affect increased
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
