Differences in Experience among Mindfulness Meditators
Michael Forte, Daniel Brown, Michael Dysart
Imagination, Cognition and Personality September 1, 1987 DOI: 10.2190/53el-utvw-dn4t-f60d (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Survey Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 110 |
| Population | Mindfulness meditators who attended retreats of two days, two weeks, or three months |
| Measures | Profile of Trance, Imaging, and Meditation Experience (TIME) |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | Phenomenological dimensions across attention, thinking, memory, imagery, body sensations, emotions, time sense, reality sense, sense of self, perception, and interpersonal interaction distinguished among retreatants who attended two-day, two-week, and three-month retreats. The authors make no attributions about the causes or sources of these differences, stating the survey was too small and lacked the comparison groups, subject matching, and statistical controls needed for causal analysis. |
Abstract
A survey of 110 subjects was conducted to investigate the differences in the phenomenological quality of mindfulness mediators who attended retreats of either two days (twenty-seven subjects), two weeks (twenty-five subjects), or three months (fifty-eight subjects). A questionnaire, the Profile of Trance, Imaging, and Meditation Experience (TIME), was used for the survey. Discriminant analyses were used to construct models of the dimensions of experience along which the three groups differed. A number of phenomenological dimensions, in the major areas of attention, thinking, memory, imagery, body sensations, emotions, time sense, reality sense, sense of self, perception, and interpersonal interaction, were found which could accurately distinguish among the three groups of retreatants. No attributions as to the causes or sources of these phenomenological differences are made, as the survey was not large enough to provide comparison groups, subject matching or other statistical controls necessary for causal analyses.
Comparable studies
Other cross-sectional and survey studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construct Validity of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire in Meditating and Nonmeditating Samples Experienced meditators and nonmeditating comparison groups | 2008 | Cross-sectional study | |
| Neural Correlates of Dispositional Mindfulness During Affect Labeling Adult participants | 2007 | Observational cross-sectional | n = 27 |
| Assessing mindfulness in children and adolescents: Development and validation of the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM). School-aged children and adolescents | 2011 | Cross-sectional validation study | n = 1,413 |
| Mindfulness and self-compassion as predictors of psychological wellbeing in long-term meditators and matched nonmeditators Experienced meditators and demographically matched nonmeditators | 2012 | Cross-sectional study | n = 152 |
| Mechanisms of Action in the Inverse Relationship Between Mindfulness and Psychological Distress Undergraduates | 2008 | Cross-sectional, correlational |
Citations in the library
Cited by 4
- Perils and promise in defining and measuring mindfulness: Observations from experience. Clinical Psychology Science and Practice 2004
- Perils and Promise in Defining and Measuring Mindfulness: Observations From Experience Clinical Psychology Science and Practice July 1, 2004
- Does mindfulness training improve cognitive abilities? A systematic review of neuropsychological findings. Clinical Psychology Review December 1, 2010
- Mindfulness training modifies subsystems of attention. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience June 2007