Mindfulness Meditation Biases Visual Temporal Order Discrimination but Not Under Conditions of Temporal Ventriloquism
Yue Tian, Xinghua Liu, Lihan Chen
Frontiers in Psychology August 7, 2020 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01937 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Observers who completed an 8-week mindfulness training course |
| Intervention | Mindfulness training |
| Duration | 8-week training course |
| Measures | Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, temporal order judgment (TOJ) |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Citations | 3 |
| Key findings | After 8 weeks of mindfulness training, observers showed a left-to-right bias in temporal order judgments of two visual disks in the visual-only condition, and this bias was positively correlated with the 'acting with awareness' facet of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire. The authors suggest the effect may be short-lived and it was not present when attention was diverted by auditory events in the cross-modal temporal ventriloquism illusion. |
Abstract
This study examined how cognitive plasticity acquired from a long (8 weeks) course of mindfulness training can modulate the perceptual processing of temporal order judgment (TOJ) on a sub-second scale. Observers carried out a TOJ on two visual disks, with or without concurrent paired beeps. A temporal ventriloquism paradigm was used in which the sound beeps either were synchronized with the two disks or bracketed the visual stimuli by leading the first disk by 50 ms and lagging the other by 50 ms. A left-to-right bias in TOJ was found under the visual-only condition after mindfulness training. This bias was positively correlated with "acting with awareness," a factor in the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, showing that awareness of every moment and enhanced attention focus magnify the left-to-right bias. However, the effect of mindfulness training may be short-lived and was not present when attention was diverted by auditory events in the cross-modal temporal ventriloquism illusion.
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
Cites 12
- Using Self-Report Assessment Methods to Explore Facets of Mindfulness Assessment January 27, 2006
- Prevention of relapse/recurrence in major depression by mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 2000
- Mind the Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation Perspectives on Psychological Science October 10, 2017
- Differential benefits of mental training types for attention, compassion, and theory of mind. Cognition August 23, 2019
- Toward a brain theory of meditation. Progress in Brain Research 2019
and 7 more in the library