Transcendental Meditation and Fine Perceptual-Motor Skill
L. R. T. Williams, P. G. Herbert
Perceptual and Motor Skills August 1, 1976 DOI: 10.2466/pms.1976.43.1.303 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Controlled experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 60 |
| Population | College male meditators and non-meditators |
| Intervention | Transcendental Meditation |
| Duration | 20-minute meditation or quiet rest, followed by pursuit rotor practice and a 4-minute rest |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | The hypotheses that Transcendental Meditation would facilitate learning and performance, reduce within-subject variability, and reduce reactive inhibition were not supported. The meditators performed significantly worse on the pursuit rotor task than the non-meditators, and the groups did not differ otherwise. The authors suggest that reported benefits of meditation were not evident in this perceptual-motor test. |
Abstract
30 college male meditators had a 20-min. meditation followed by a 6-min. waking phase prior to 5-min. continuous practice on the pursuit rotor task. This was followed by a 4-min. rest then a further 2-min. of pursuit rotor practice. A similar group of college males who were non-meditators ( N = 30) followed the same procedures except that instead of meditating they sat quietly for the initial 20-min. period. The expectations that Transcendental Meditation would (a) facilitate learning and performance; (b) cause less within-subject variability; and (c) cause less reactive inhibition, were not upheld by the results. With the exception of performance, which was significantly lower for the meditators, the two groups were no different. Thus, it appears that certain reported physiological and psychological benefits that are attributed to the practice of Transcendental Meditation (such as less anxiety, greater consistency, more awareness, alertness, and attention) are not manifested in the present behavioral test of perceptual-motor function. In fact, in terms of performance, the meditators seemed to be at a disadvantage.
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 7
- The psychological effects of meditation: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin May 14, 2012
- Visual Sensitivity and Mindfulness Meditation Perceptual and Motor Skills June 1, 1984
- The influence of focused-attention meditation states on the cognitive control of sequence learning. Consciousness and Cognition October 2017
- Evaluation of meditation and relaxation on physiological response during the performance of fine motor and gross motor tasks. Perceptual and Motor Skills February 1, 1986
- The effect of transcendental meditation on iconic memory. Biofeedback and self-regulation December 1979
and 2 more in the library