Training novice practitioners to reliably report their meditation experience using shared phenomenological dimensions.
Oussama Abdoun, Jelle Zorn, Stefano Poletti, Enrico Fucci, Antoine Lutz
Consciousness and Cognition February 1, 2019 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2019.01.004 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Neurophenomenological experiment Longitudinal Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Novice meditation practitioners |
| Intervention | Meditation training protocol |
| Duration | Several weeks of daily practice |
| Topics | Meditation Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Demand characteristics Desirable responding First-person Neurophenomenology Self-reports Training |
| Citations | 44 |
| Key findings | Novice practitioners' self-reported phenomenological ratings were sensitive to meditation state, dose, and fatigue, and correlated with behavioral measures, with effects better predicted by practice features than by desirable responding. |
Abstract
Empirical descriptions of the phenomenology of meditation states rely on practitioners' ability to provide accurate information on their experience. We present a meditation training protocol that was designed to equip naive participants with a theoretical background and experiential knowledge that would enable them to share their experience. Subsequently, novices carried on with daily practice during several weeks before participating in experiments. Using a neurophenomenological experiment designed to explore two different meditation states (focused attention and open monitoring), we found that self-reported phenomenological ratings (i) were sensitive to meditation states, (ii) reflected meditation dose and fatigue effects, and (iii) correlated with behavioral measures (variability of response time). Each of these effects was better predicted by features of participants' daily practice than by desirable responding. Our results provide evidence that novice practitioners can reliably report their experience along phenomenological dimensions and warrant the future investigation of this training protocol with a longitudinal design.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Cancer patients (clinical intervention study) | 2003 | Mixed methods: scale development, correlational, quasi-experimental, laboratory, experience-sampling, and clinical intervention study | |
| Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. | 2008 | Controlled laboratory experiment | |
| Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. | 2012 | Two studies: correlational study and experimental study | |
| Mental Training Enhances Attentional Stability: Neural and Behavioral Evidence | 2009 | Experimental study | |
| Mindfulness meditation and substance use in an incarcerated population. Incarcerated population | 2006 | Quasi-experimental with treatment-as-usual control condition |
Citations in the library
Cited by 26
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to Neurophenomenology - The Case of Studying Self Boundaries With Meditators. Frontiers in Psychology 2020
- Self-Boundary Dissolution in Meditation: A Phenomenological Investigation. Brain Sciences June 21, 2021
- Mindfulness meditation is related to sensory‐affective uncoupling of pain in trained novice and expert practitioners European Journal of Pain April 20, 2020
- Mindfulness in the focus of the neurosciences - The contribution of neuroimaging to the understanding of mindfulness. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience October 17, 2022
- Cognitive Defusion Is a Core Cognitive Mechanism for the Sensory-Affective Uncoupling of Pain During Mindfulness Meditation Psychosomatic Medicine March 31, 2021
and 21 more in the library
Cites 24
- Using Self-Report Assessment Methods to Explore Facets of Mindfulness Assessment January 27, 2006
- How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective Perspectives on Psychological Science October 14, 2011
- Mind the Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation Perspectives on Psychological Science October 10, 2017
- Efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in Prevention of Depressive Relapse JAMA Psychiatry April 28, 2016
- Conceptual and methodological issues in research on mindfulness and meditation. American Psychologist October 1, 2015
and 19 more in the library