Psychological Science
March 28, 2013
Michael D. Mrazek, Michael S. Franklin, Dawa T. Phillips et al.
1,067 citations
A 2-week mindfulness-training course reduced distracting thoughts and improved performance on cognitive tasks. In a randomized controlled investigation, participants who completed mindfulness training showed higher GRE reading-comprehension scores and greater working memory capacity compared to controls, while also reporting fewer distracting thoughts during these tasks. The improvements were driven by reduced mind wandering, particularly among those initially prone to distraction. The findings indicate that cultivating mindfulness can enhance cognitive function broadly.
Emotion
February 6, 2012
Michael D. Mrazek, Jonathan Smallwood, Jonathan W. Schooler
604 citations
Mindfulness and mind-wandering are opposing constructs. In a first study, higher dispositional mindfulness, measured by the Mindful Attention and Awareness Scale, correlated negatively with four measures of mind-wandering, confirming their inverse relationship. In a second study, eight minutes of mindful breathing reduced behavioral indicators of mind-wandering during a Sustained Attention to Response Task, compared with passive relaxation or reading. These findings clarify the opposition between the two constructs and help integrate separate lines of research.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
October 25, 2016
Benjamin W. Mooneyham, Michael D. Mrazek, Alissa J. Mrazek et al.
95 citations
During tasks requiring continuous engagement, the mind alternates between focused attention and mind-wandering. Using a dynamic functional connectivity approach with a sliding window, distinct brain states involving the executive control, salience, and default networks were identified during a sustained attention task focused on breathing sensations. The frequency of these states correlated oppositely with dispositional mindfulness, suggesting they correspond to focused attention and mind-wandering. A mindfulness intervention increased the frequency of the state associated with focused attention, especially in those who improved most in dispositional mindfulness. These findings support that mind-wandering involves corecruitment of executive and default network regions.
PLoS One
April 6, 2012
Jonathan Smallwood, Kevin Brown, Benjamin Baird et al.
92 citations
People vary in how often they have thoughts unrelated to the task at hand, and this variation is linked to longer reaction times when a target appears while baseline pupil diameter is elevated. Because increased baseline pupil diameter can indicate higher tonic activity in the norepinephrine system, the findings suggest that high tonic norepinephrine activity may facilitate task-unrelated thoughts. The authors hypothesize that a high tonic mode of norepinephrine broadly reduces the amplification of task-relevant information, thereby prioritizing internally generated thoughts and shielding them from potentially disruptive external events.
Education Sciences
August 31, 2019
Alissa J. Mrazek, Michael D. Mrazek, Jordan V. Reese et al.
17 citations
A digital mindfulness course delivered over 22 days in a public high school was feasible: students completed 80% of lessons and 77% of daily exercises. Although the one-group design limits causal conclusions, emotional regulation and stress management improved from pretest to post-test, even as life demands increased. Students also developed a stronger growth mindset about their ability to focus and felt more motivated to train that ability. Among the 81.6% of students who reported paying attention less than they should at baseline, focus during class significantly increased. The findings support the feasibility of digital mindfulness training for high schools and suggest strategies for improving implementation fidelity.
Behavioral Neuroscience
December 1, 2019
Clemens C C Bauer, Camila Caballero, Ethan Scherer et al.
Mindfulness training in middle-school children reduces stress and alters brain function. Forty children were randomly assigned to eight weeks of mindfulness or coding training. Before training, higher stress was linked to greater right amygdala activity when viewing fearful faces. After training, children who learned mindfulness reported lower stress and showed reduced right amygdala response to fearful faces, along with stronger connectivity between the amygdala and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. These brain changes occurred outside of meditation, suggesting the benefits generalize. The findings indicate that mindfulness can be integrated into school curricula and that its stress-reducing effects involve dampening amygdala reactions to negative stimuli.
Journal of experimental psychology. General
October 1, 2014
Benjamin Baird, Michael D. Mrazek, Dawa T. Phillips et al.
A two-week meditation-training program improved people's ability to accurately judge their own memory performance, but not their perceptual accuracy. Participants who completed the meditation program showed significantly enhanced introspective accuracy on a trial-by-trial basis for memory tasks, compared to an active control group that showed no change. These findings suggest that the capacity to introspect can be improved through mental training, at least in some cognitive domains.