Thinking at the Edge is a philosophical method for systematically deepening thinking and exploring concepts from many different angles. The cognitive mechanisms through which Thinking at the Edge works are less clear. To explore these, this article will place Thinking at the Edge alongside another method that uses the body to think critically: Tibetan monastic debate. Tibetan monastic debate is...
Journal of CognitionMay 26, 2026Lionel A Newman, Ming Cao, Susanne Täuber et al.
Previous work has shown that successful tacit coordination depends on the availability of working memory resources. Much less is known about how thought processes, such as mind-wandering and self- vs. other-oriented attention, influence tacit coordination. In this experiment, we examined the effect of these thought processes on tacit coordination, and whether we could influence performance and...
A central challenge in neuroscience is to establish meaningful links between subjective experience and brain activity. Neurofeedback of meditation states has been proposed as a way to address this challenge by creating a real-time loop between neural signals and first-person experience. Here, the introspective and self-regulation capacities of experienced meditators are harnessed to dynamically...
Abstract Objectives Mindfulness meditation is widely recognized for its individual psychological benefits, yet its interpersonal effects remain underexplored. This daily diary study examined whether and how mindfulness practice by one romantic partner influences the emotional well-being of their non-meditating partner. Method Using a randomized controlled design, couples were assigned to either...
The sense of self is a multidimensional feature of human experience. Different dimensions of self-experience can change drastically during altered states of consciousness induced through meditation or psychedelic drugs, as well as in a variety of mental disorders. Some experienced meditation practitioners are able to modulate their sense of self deliberately, which allows for a direct...
In this study, we set out to examine whether monastic debate practice can help with emotion regulation and reduce the experience of negative affect. Research on traditional contemplative practices—including mindfulness, loving-kindness meditation, and yoga—shows that they influence emotion regulation and emotional experience. However, systematic reasoning, appraisal, and emotion regulation in a...
PsyArXivFebruary 15, 2024Lionel Alfred Newman, Ming Cao, Susanne Täuber et al.
preprint
In our previous study (Newman et al., in press, SCAN), dyad performance in a coordination task was shown to be amenable to manipulations of processes that underpin perspective-taking, namely working memory. When we diminished resources commonly implicated in observational perspective-taking, coordination performance also diminished. In this study, we expand on these findings to test whether...
Abstract Objectives Although mindfulness meditation is the familiar and researched form of mental training derived from Buddhism, it represents but one form of practice. Monastic debate is an interactive and dyadic analytical meditation practice that originates from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition where monastics seek to jointly deepen their understanding of complicated philosophical issues. To...
Computational modeling and meditation are not frequently mentioned in the same breath. However, in this article we argue that computational modeling can provide insights into the mechanisms by which meditation produces its effects on cognition. Moreover, computational modeling allows the researcher to make predictions about how effects of meditation will generalize to other contexts such as...
Analytical meditation and monastic debate are contemplative practices engaged in by Tibetan Buddhist monastics that have up to now been largely unexplored in Western contemplative science. The highly physical form of contemplative debating plays an important role in the monastic curriculum. Based on discussions and recorded interviews Tibetan monastic teachers and senior students at Sera Jey...
In response to our article, Davidson and Dahl offer commentary and advice regarding additional topics crucial to a comprehensive prescriptive agenda for future research on mindfulness and meditation. Their commentary raises further challenges and provides an important complement to our article. More consideration of these issues is especially welcome because limited space precluded us from...
During the past two decades, mindfulness meditation has gone from being a fringe topic of scientific investigation to being an occasional replacement for psychotherapy, tool of corporate well-being, widely implemented educational practice, and "key to building more resilient soldiers." Yet the mindfulness movement and empirical evidence supporting it have not gone without criticism....
Training in meditation has been shown to affect functioning of several attentional subsystems, most prominently conflict monitoring, and to some extent orienting. These previous findings described the effects of cueing and manipulating stimulus congruency on response times and accuracies. However, changes in accuracy and response times can arise from several factors. Computational process...
There is a rising scientific interest in the neuroscience behind contemplative practices (see e.g., Vago and Silbersweig, 2012 for a review), including movement-based practices such as yoga and tai chi. Given that, it becomes important to ask how such contemplative practices differ from Western movement practices such as dance. In both dance training and contemplative movement, one learns to...
We investigated whether mindfulness training (MT) influences information processing in a working memory task with complex visual stimuli. Participants were tested before (T1) and after (T2) participation in an intensive one-month MT retreat, and their performance was compared with that of an age- and education-matched control group. Accuracy did not differ across groups at either time point....