Predictive Processing theories and the Free Energy Principle (FEP) face a dilemma when addressing the problem raised by the Extended Mind Hypothesis (EMH): on the one hand, few can deny that some objects, such as phones, computers, or other people, have a disproportionate role in the reduction of free energy; hence, it is natural to accept that the mind is extended. On the other hand, this...
Background and purpose Mindfulness training benefits athletes’ psychological states and performance, but how mindfulness translates into competitive experience remains unclear. This study examines whether attentional control is the psychological pathway from trait mindfulness to race flow in competitive swimmers, and whether this pathway extends to objective pacing accuracy. Methods A...
Eye-to-eye gazing under low-level illumination provides a controlled laboratory paradigm for investigating out-of-body experiences (OBEs) and psychological projections. In the present study, a large sample of healthy participants ( N = 398) completed a dyadic gazing task. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) conducted on nine items of the Strange-Face Questionnaire (SFQ) yielded a three-factor...
What kind of instrument do we use when we examine ourselves—and how much of what we see is shaped by that instrument rather than by what we actually are? I propose here that self-reflective cognition operates through a system subject to two separable classes of aberration. Directional calibration bias (Axis I) describes a stable functional tendency to systematically inflate (positive bias) or...
Recent advances in artificial intelligence, connectomics, and computational neuroscience increasingly raise the question of whether artificial systems—or even pure computer simulations—could become conscious. Contemporary theories emphasize embodiment, predictive processing, homeostatic regulation, and continuous interaction between cognition, body, and environment rather than isolated...
Frontiers in PsychologySeptember 28, 2026Andrea Signorelli, Francesco Tormen, Bruna Dal Bianco et al.
IntroductionLucid dreaming (LD) involves awareness of being in a dream during REM sleep and depends on the reactivation of metacognitive and reality-monitoring processes. This study tested whether a virtual reality (VR) intervention designed to rehearse lucid-dream-relevant metacognitive routines increases LD rates beyond baseline training, and whether generic VR exposure produces similar...
Can decades of Zen meditation leave measurable traces in the practitioner’s natural language? Long-term contemplative practice is widely understood to reshape emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perceptual engagement, yet empirical research on these transformations has been fundamentally constrained by two limitations: an observation window of weeks to months at most, and an...
Frontiers in PsychologySeptember 24, 2026Turan Sezan, Murat Şahbudak, Canan Sarıyar Sezan et al.
Background University students frequently experience stress, appraisals that may negatively relate to health beliefs and motivation for physical activity. Dispositional mindfulness has been identified as a potential psychological resource that may be associated with more adaptive health cognitions under stressful conditions. Purpose This cross-sectional study examined associations among the...
Objective This study aimed to examine the association between sport-specific mindfulness and dispositional flow in collegiate athletes and to test whether cognitive reappraisal and sport confidence showed independent and sequential indirect effects in this association. Methods A total of 583 collegiate athletes from universities in Guangxi, Hebei, Liaoning, and Tianjin, China, completed a...
Contact with nature supports psychological health, yet whether the quality of mindful engagement matters more than the quantity of exposure remains unclear. This pilot randomized controlled trial examined a brief, structured nature-based mindfulness program’s effects on mental well-being, perceived stress, and nature connectedness relative to an unstructured outdoor walking control....
Frontiers in PsychologySeptember 23, 2026Ana Pizarro-Carmona, Cristina Nunes, Sofia Baena et al.
Introduction The Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) is a widespread instrument to assess individual differences in the frequency of mindful states over time, and it has been validated in a variety of populations, countries, and settings. Nevertheless, validation with parents of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) still remains a gap in the current research field. Methods This...
Inconclusive evidence for leading third-person theories of consciousness has renewed scientific interest in its first-person nature. Self-inquiry, a first-person method from Advaita Vedanta, can be operationalized to meet this need, though it has not received prior empirical study, likely owing to Advaita’s idealism. By bracketing Advaita’s metaphysical commitments and mapping its...
IntroductionNear-death experiences (NDEs) are subjective experiences reported during actual or perceived life-threatening situations, whereas near-death-like experiences may occur in non-life-threatening altered states. Empirical data from Chinese populations remain limited, particularly regarding culturally specific narrative content.MethodsThis exploratory mixed-methods study examined...
BackgroundPostgraduate students are six times more susceptible to mental health challenges than the general adult population, making it imperative to identify effective initiatives to support them. This is particularly relevant for master’s and doctorate students undertaking distance-learning programmes as this is a dimension of the student experience that remains unexplored. Meditation...
Digital detox tourism has become increasingly popular, yet empirical research on its restorative mechanisms remains limited. Drawing on attention restoration theory and the mindfulness–well-being framework, this study used a two-group quasi-experiment combined with a three-wave longitudinal and dose–response design ( N = 500). Propensity score weighting was applied to a composite path analysis...
Buddhist meditation is widely studied in relation to mindfulness, emotion regulation, compassion, and well-being, yet it is often operationalized as an attentional or stress-reduction technique detached from the ethical and cultural conditions of practice. This article develops the ethical-cultural training ecology model, a Hypothesis and Theory framework that treats Buddhist meditation as a...
Research on AI consciousness has largely focused on whether AI systems are conscious and how humans attribute consciousness to them. Yet large language models (LLMs) increasingly function as consciousness attributors, generating judgments about whether and to what degree other entities are conscious. We introduce model-generated consciousness attribution as an object of empirical...
Introduction: The present study aimed to examine the effect of sport mindfulness on athlete burnout among Olympic combat sport athletes and to investigate the mediating role of athlete self-compassion and the moderating role of emotion regulation in this relationship. Methods: This study employed a cross-sectional correlational research design and included 379 athletes (279 men and 100 women)...
Background In recent years, China has continued to strengthen arts education reform and the development of aesthetic education. The training regimen for dance majors is characterized by high intensity, high repetition, precise error correction, and continuous assessment; the stress resulting from these factors can affect their physical and mental wellbeing. Understanding the internal mechanism...
BackgroundTrauma recovery among tribal adolescent girls and young women in Northeast India remains poorly understood, particularly for those with dissociative disorders. Existing frameworks rely on Western paradigms that do not account for the cultural, spiritual, and environmental realities of tribal communities.MethodsUsing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), this study examined...
ProblemA persistent observation troubles both positive psychology and contemplative science: people suffer in the midst of success. The wealthy report emptiness; the deeply loved report captivity; the lucid report paralysis; the renunciate remains seized by the identity of renouncing. Existing wellbeing frameworks—utility theory, composite indices, PERMA—explain this poorly because they share a...
Introduction Although meditation practice encompasses both intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions, the differential effects of individual versus group meditation settings (IS vs. GS) remain largely unexplored. This study aimed to reduce this gap by comparing the effects of a mindfulness meditation session performed in the two settings, focusing in particular on mind-wandering (MW) dynamics....
Introduction: Romantic relationships play a pivotal role in young adulthood, and attachment insecurity has consistently been linked to lower romantic relationship satisfaction. Mindfulness- and compassion-based resources may be associated with this link, helping to clarify how satisfaction varies among insecurely attached individuals. Building on this idea, the present study examined whether...
This paper critically examines the view that Husserl's 1891 essay The Logic of Signs (LoS) anticipates the Computational Theory of Mind (CTM). According to this interpretation, Husserl's account of symbolic inference endorses an automatic, syntactic, causally driven model of thought. However, this study argues that such a reading neglects Husserl's broader philosophical context and his explicit...
s (2025) review article offers a comprehensive, up-to-date self-description of consciousness science: it organizes the field's central theoretical approaches, reconstructs key methodological and institutional developments, and discusses the ethical, clinical, and societal implications of possible "success" in understanding and manipulating consciousness. We take up this invitation to...