Guided mindfulness meditation as a priming strategy for reducing anxiety and facilitating motor skill learning.
Merwyn Yu Xian Lee, Megan Wan Ting Tay, Meng Leong Chia, Pei Ling Choo, Xiang Ren Tan
Frontiers in Psychology 2026 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1697956 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 24 |
| Population | Healthy young adults who were meditation-naive |
| Intervention | Mindfulness meditation |
| Dose | 10-min session |
| Duration | Single session |
| Measures | State-Trait Anxiety Inventory - State subscale, Visual Analogue Scale-Anxiety (VAS-A), Parametric Go/No-Go (PGNG) |
| Topics | Anxiety Meditation |
| Keywords | Attention Cognitive function Motor learning Movement State anxiety |
| Key findings | A single 10-minute guided mindfulness meditation session reduced anxiety and improved accuracy on a simple dominant-hand motor task, but did not affect untrained or novel motor learning or cognitive functions. |
Abstract
Mindfulness meditation (MM) is a promising cognitive strategy that may facilitate motor learning by improving attention and reducing anxiety. Our study aimed to investigate the effects of guided MM on motor learning in healthy young adults. The study was conducted as randomised controlled trials where 24 meditation-naive participants underwent either a 10-min MM session or seated rest (CT) before performing circle tracing tasks using their (1) trained (dominant) hand, (2) untrained (non-dominant) hand, and (3) untrained hand to trace with an inverted screen display (a novel motor task). Post-learning, they performed a Parametric Go/No-Go (PGNG) cognitive test. Anxiety level was assessed via heart rates, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory - State subscale and Visual Analogue Scale-Anxiety (VAS-A). Heart rates were lowered during guided MM (F 3.3,36.6 = 3.495, p = 0.022) with reduction in VAS-A scores (p = 0.012) after a single session of MM, indicating lowered anxiety. Only the MM group demonstrated learning effects for the trained hand task (+4.2% in accuracy; p < 0.001) while no differences were observed for the untrained hand and novel motor learning tasks. PGNG test results revealed that cognitive functions such as inhibitory control, sustained attention, and processing speeds remained unaltered between groups. Our findings suggest that a brief guided MM session reduced anxiety levels and facilitated the learning of simple motor tasks. Future studies may explore the use of extended MM sessions and/or regular meditation practice to elicit cognitive benefits for facilitating novel or complex motor learning.
Comparable studies
Other randomized controlled trials on anxiety, most cited first.
Citations in the library
Cites 20
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and 15 more in the library