Looking inside the black box of mindfulness meditation: Investigating attention and awareness during meditation using the mindful awareness task (MAT).
Yuval Hadash, Liad Ruimi, Amit Bernstein
Psychological Assessment March 2023 DOI: 10.1037/pas0001194 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Laboratory study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 143 |
| Population | Adults in a laboratory study, 76.92% female |
| Measures | mindful awareness task (MAT) |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key points | Attention and awareness during mindfulness meditation were related to previous meditation practice, attitudinal qualities of mindfulness, attention regulation, and mental health, while sustained visual attention and executive functions were not meaningfully related to them. The authors argue the mindful awareness task shows sound psychometric performance and may overcome limitations of existing mindfulness measures. |
Abstract
Training attention and awareness in mindfulness meditation is theorized to be essential for the cultivation of mindfulness and its salutary outcomes. Yet, the empirical foundation for this central premise in mindfulness science is surprisingly small due to a limited methodological capacity to measure attention and awareness during mindfulness meditation. Accordingly, we set out to measure and study these processes in a laboratory study (N = 143, 76.92% female) using a novel behavioral measurement paradigm-the mindful awareness task (MAT). We empirically characterized attention and awareness during mindfulness meditation and found novel behavioral evidence indicating that, as long-theorized, these processes were related to previous mindfulness meditation practice, attitudinal qualities of mindfulness, attention regulation, and mental health. Furthermore, we found that the accuracy of self-reported mindfulness was, paradoxically, dependent on behavioral capacities for mindful awareness; and that sustained visual attention and executive functions, measured via cognitive-experimental tasks, were not meaningfully related to attention and awareness during mindfulness meditation. In contrast, the MAT demonstrated sound psychometric performance as a measure of mindful awareness, and may overcome significant limitations of extant mindfulness measurement methods. Collectively, findings challenge conceptual and methodological assumptions in mindfulness science, provide a novel paradigmatic direction for research on mindfulness, and present long-awaited evidence that attention and awareness during mindfulness meditation may indeed be fundamental to its practice, cultivation, and salutary functions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
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 11
- The individual and sequential effect of focused attention and open monitoring meditation on mindfulness skills. PLoS One 2025
- From Confound to Clinical Tool: Mindfulness and the Observer Effect in Research and Therapy. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging April 1, 2025
- A prospective ecological momentary assessment study of an ayahuasca retreat: exploring the salutary impact of acute psychedelic experiences on subacute affect and mindfulness skills in daily life Psychopharmacology January 18, 2025
- Meditation, Music and Medicine are three gifts from the Goddess Muses Mousike International Journal of Complementary & Alternative Medicine 2023
- Dispositional and Cultivated Mindfulness: Therapists’ Views and Experiences and the Role and Order of the FFMQ Facets in the Process of Mindfulness Cultivation Mindfulness July 22, 2026
and 6 more in the library
Cites 41
- The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003
- Using Self-Report Assessment Methods to Explore Facets of Mindfulness Assessment January 27, 2006
- Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. Clinical Psychology Science and Practice 2004
- Mindfulness: Theoretical Foundations and Evidence for its Salutary Effects Psychological Inquiry October 19, 2007
- How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective Perspectives on Psychological Science October 14, 2011
and 36 more in the library