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.