Short-term mindfulness intervention reduces the negative attentional effects associated with heavy media multitasking.
Thomas E Gorman, C Shawn Green
Scientific Reports April 18, 2016 DOI: 10.1038/srep24542 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Normally functioning individuals, including heavy and light media multitaskers |
| Duration | Short-term intervention |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Humans Cognition Attention Internet Adolescent Female Young adult |
| Key findings | Heavy media multitaskers showed generally poorer attentional abilities than light media multitaskers, and all participants benefited from a short-term mindfulness intervention. The benefits were disproportionately large in heavy media multitaskers, though the positive outcomes were short-lived. |
Abstract
Recent research suggests that frequently switching between various forms of media (i.e. 'media multitasking') is associated with diminished attentional abilities, a disconcerting result given the prevalence of media multitasking in today's society. In the present study, we sought to investigate the extent to which the deficits associated with frequent media multitasking can be temporarily ameliorated via a short-term mindfulness intervention previously shown to produce beneficial effects on the attentional abilities of normally functioning individuals. Consistent with previous work, we found: (1) that heavy media multitaskers showed generally poorer attentional abilities than light media multitaskers and (2) that all participants showed benefits from the short-term mindfulness intervention. Furthermore, we found that the benefits of the short-term mindfulness intervention were not equivalently large across participants. Instead, these benefits were disproportionately large in the heavy media multitaskers. While the positive outcomes were short-lived, this opens the possibility of performing long-term interventions with the goal of realizing lasting gains in this population.
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
- Meditating musicians: investigating the experience of music students and professional musicians in a brief mindfulness course to address music performance anxiety. Frontiers in Psychology 2025
- For whom does a brief mindfulness induction work? An exploration of the moderating role of individual differences in the effect of mindfulness induction on executive functioning and mind-wandering BMC Psychology September 3, 2026
- Parsing state mindfulness effects on neurobehavioral markers of cognitive control: A within-subject comparison of focused attention and open monitoring. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience February 13, 2024
- Brief mindfulness meditation intervention improves attentional control of athletes in virtual reality shooting competition: Evidence from fNIRS and eye tracking. Psychology of Sport And Exercise November 2023
- The Influence of a Short-Term Mindfulness Meditation Intervention on Emotion and Visual Attention Journal of Cognitive Enhancement June 13, 2020
and 2 more in the library
Cites 4
- The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003
- Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. Emotion February 6, 2012
- A mind you can count on: validating breath counting as a behavioral measure of mindfulness Frontiers in Psychology October 24, 2014
- Does mindfulness training improve cognitive abilities? A systematic review of neuropsychological findings. Clinical Psychology Review December 1, 2010