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Evaluating Mindfulness Meditation Apps

Claudia Daudén Roquet, Corina Sas

April 20, 2018 DOI: 10.1145/3170427.3188616 (opens in new tab)

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Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Auto-ethnographic and expert evaluation
Sample size 16
Population 16 most popular iPhone mindfulness apps in the UK
Topics Meditation
Keywords Mindfulness meditation Applied psychology Psychotherapist Medical education Innovative human-technology interaction
Citations 84
Key findings Popular iPhone mindfulness apps focus on guided meditation but lack support for monitoring intrinsic meditation processes and measuring training effectiveness.

Abstract

indfulness meditation has significant benefits for health and well-being but requires training. A wealth of mindfulness meditation apps have been developed in the last years. However, there has been liMassachusetts Institute of Technologyed academic work evaluating these technologies. This paper reports an auto-ethnographic and expert evaluation study of 16 most popular iPhone mindfulness apps in the UK. Findings indicate that these apps focus mostly on guided meditation, with liMassachusetts Institute of Technologyed support for monitoring intrinsic meditation processes and measuring the effectiveness of the training. We propose a more nuanced discourse around such apps concluding with implications for design; including new tools for supporting intrinsic meditation processes and bodily kinetic aspects fostering mindfulness, together with the call for developing guidelines for evaluating the effectiveness of such applications.

Comparable studies

Other qualitative studies on meditation, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
The varieties of contemplative experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists Western Buddhist meditation practitioners and experts in Theravāda, Zen, and Tibetan... 2017 Qualitative study with mixed-methods
The Effects of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction on Nurse Stress and Burnout Nurses in a hospital system 2004 Implementation study with mixed methods
An exploratory mixed methods study of the acceptability and effectiveness of mindfulness -based cognitive therapy for patients with active depression and anxiety in primary care Primary care patients with recurrent depression or recurrent depression and anxiety 2006 Exploratory mixed methods study n = 13
A qualitative study of mindfulness‐based cognitive therapy for depression Participants in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in a mental-health context 2001 Qualitative study n = 7
Effortless awareness: using real time neurofeedback to investigate correlates of posterior cingulate cortex activity in meditators' self-report Meditators 2013 Qualitative study using grounded theory methodology

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