The effect of transcendental meditation on iconic memory.
L R Frumkin, Robert R. Pagano
Biofeedback and self-regulation December 1979 DOI: 10.1007/bf00998961 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study (three experiments) Pilot study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Meditation group and nonmeditation group (human participants) |
| Intervention | Transcendental meditation |
| Duration | 20-minute treatment period |
| Measures | Sperling's partial-report technique |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | A pilot experiment suggested a 20-minute transcendental meditation session improved iconic memory in meditators but not nonmeditators, but when proper controls were added the advantage disappeared and meditators performed worse on each day. A third experiment again found significantly lower performance in meditators. The authors argue that careful control is essential and suggest meditation effects may depend on hemispheric dominance for the task. |
Abstract
Three experiments investigated the effects of transcendental meditation (TM) on iconic memory. The task involved reporting of digits shown tachistoscopically, using Sperling's partial-report technique. Experiment 1 was a pilot study involving a meditation group and a nonmeditation gropu. All subjects were run in a pretest/treatment/posttest design. During the treatment phase the meditation group practiced TM for a 20-minute period and the nonmeditation group relaxed with eyes closed. The results showed that the treatment increased performance in meditators, but not in nonmeditators. In this experiment important controls such as individual administration of the task, extrinsic rewards, subject pacing, and adequate practice were lacking. Experiment 2 was a replication of the first, with these controls added. The results no longer showed a superiority for the meditation treatment. In fact, the meditation group performed worse on each day of running. Experiment 3 was a replication of Experiment 1, to assess whether the meditation effect of Experiment 1 was due to (a) differential increased attention of the meditators (minimized in subject-paced Experiment 2), (b) a gain early in learning for the meditators that was eliminated due to practice in Experiment 2, or (c) a lack of proper control procedures in Experiment 1. The performance of the meditators was, again, significantly lower. This research illustrates the importance of careful control when investigating the effects of meditation on behavior. It also suggests that the effects of meditation may depend on which hemisphere is dominant in performing the task.
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 |