Effect of Traditional Meditation (Spiritual Techniques) on Metacognitive Abilities and Mindfulness in University Students: A Three-armed Controlled Trial

A five-month randomized trial compared two spiritual techniques—vipassana meditation (VM) and pranav meditation (PM)—with a control group in 102 university students aged 19–26. Both VM and PM led to significant improvements in metacognitive abilities and mindfulness from before to after the intervention, while the control group did not. Post-hoc comparisons showed that VM and PM each differed significantly from the control and from each other on post-test scores. The findings suggest that both techniques can benefit metacognition and mindfulness in higher education students.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Disturbance in mindfulness state and disability related to self-regulated cognitive abilities (metacognition) generally occur among higher education students. Many types of yoga and meditation techniques have been developed which show improvement in one’s mindfulness, cognition, as well as metacognition. We carried out a three-armed empirical study to capture the effect of two spiritual techniques-vipassana meditation (VM) and pranav meditation (PM) on metacognitive abilities and mindfulness in university youths. A total of 140 students (aged 19-26 years) were screened, out of which 102 students met predetermined eligibility criteria and were randomly assigned into three groups: VM, PM, and control (CT). Metacognition and mindfulness state were assessed at baseline and after five months using Gurukula Kangri Metacognition Awareness Scale (Narottam Kumar and Udham Singh) and Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (Kirk Warren Brown and Richad Ryan) respectively. The findings of within-subject effects showed significant improvements in metacognitive abilities and mindfulness from pretest to posttest in both VM and PM group compared to CT group. Between-subject effects showed there were significant differences for post-test score of metacognition and mindfulness across three groups. Post-hoc Bonferroni-corrected test showed significant differences in the post mean score of dependent variables were found to be statistically significant between VM & PM, between VM & CT, and PM & CT. These findings suggest that VM and PM techniques can be beneficial for improving metacognitive abilities and mindfulness in students of higher education institutions.