Investigating the influence of meditation style and practitioner experience on change blindness using a flicker-paradigm.
E. Flynn
November 5, 2021 preprint DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-1054205/v1 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational study |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 46 |
| Population | Adults with pre-existing meditation practice (30 female, 16 male; combined mean age 42 years) |
| Interventions | Transcendental Meditation Mindfulness-based Meditation |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | Long-term Transcendental Meditation practitioners detected changes faster (mean 5927.73 ms, SD 606.92) than long-term mindfulness-based meditation practitioners (mean 10949.92 ms, SD 984.72) on a flicker-paradigm task, with a significant effect of meditation style and experience (F(1,42) = 7.22, p < 0.05, partial eta squared = .147). The authors contend this supports Transcendental Meditation being more effective at reducing change blindness. |
Abstract
Change blindness engenders an inability to detect changes made to a visual scene and has negative implications for areas such as road safety and eye-witness memory. Therefore, it’s important to find ways of reducing change blindness to create a safer society. One way this might be achieved is through the practice of meditation. Regular practice of meditation may reduce the effects of change blindness by expanding a practitioner’s consciousness and brain potential over time. This study compared the influence of practitioner experience and medi- tation style- Transcendental Meditation (TM) or Mindfulness-based Meditation (MBM), on change blindness susceptibility. Forty-six participants (30 female and 16 male) with a com- bined mean age of 42 years old, were assigned to two experimental groups depending on the pre-existing meditation style they practiced. Both groups completed an identical experimen- tal task known as a flicker-paradigm where they had to identify changes made to various images. A two-way independent ANOVA revealed a significant effect of meditation style and experience on change-detection reaction times- (F(1,42) =7.22, p < 0.05, = .147), with long-term transcendental meditation practitioners recording faster reaction times (mean = 5927.73, SD = 606.92) on average than long-term mindfulness-based practitioners (mean = 10949.92 SD = 984.72). These results support the contention that long-term practice of transcendental meditation is more effective at reducing change blindness than long-term practice of mindfulness-based meditation.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Using Self-Report Assessment Methods to Explore Facets of Mindfulness Undergraduate students | 2006 | Observational cohort | |
| Effectiveness of a meditation-based stress reduction program in the treatment of anxiety disorders Patients with generalized anxiety disorder or panic disorder with or without agoraphobia | 1992 | Observational cohort | n = 22 |
| Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness Participants with extensive Insight meditation experience and matched controls | 2005 | Observational cohort | n = 20 |
| Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity Experienced meditators and matched meditation-naive controls | 2011 | Observational cohort | |
| Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice Long-term Buddhist practitioners and controls | 2004 | Observational cohort |
Citations in the library
Cites 8
- Mindfulness Interventions Annual Review of Psychology September 30, 2016
- Effects of a Randomized Controlled Trial of Transcendental Meditation on Components of the Metabolic Syndrome in Subjects With Coronary Heart Disease Archives of Internal Medicine June 12, 2006
- Treating and Preventing Alcohol, Nicotine, and Drug Abuse Through Transcendental Meditation: Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly October 26, 1994
- Effects of Transcendental Meditation in Veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Pilot Study Military Medicine June 1, 2011
- The Effect of Meditation on Self-Reported Measures of Stress, Anxiety, Depression, and Perfectionism in a College Population Journal of College Student Psychotherapy March 31, 2011
and 3 more in the library