When meditators avoid counting during time production things get interesting.
Joseph Glicksohn, Aviva Berkovich-Ohana
PsyCh Journal March 2019 DOI: 10.1002/pchj.250 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study (within-participant comparison of time production with and without counting) Qualitative Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Experienced meditators who had previously completed a time-production task using chronometric counting |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Chronometric counting Internal clock Time production |
| Key findings | Time production performed by chronometric counting was a linear function of target duration, whereas time production without counting was not and contained a discontinuity. The authors propose that forcing meditators to rely on sensory, bodily, and other cues rather than counting provides an appropriate context for observing this discontinuity. |
Abstract
Time production (TP) with or without chronometric counting both instantiates and reflects the working of an internal clock, as originally posited by Treisman. We exploit the fact that a number of experienced meditators, who had previously participated in a study wherein TP was assessed, and who had employed chronometric counting then, would be coming back to the lab to participate in a second study. We specifically requested that they should not employ chronometric counting this time, thus allowing us to contrast TP with and without counting. We report a qualitative difference between TP implemented by counting and TP without counting: The first is a linear function of target duration (T), while the second is not, and entails a discontinuity in the function. Requesting meditators not to engage in chronometric counting, and thereby forcing them to rely instead on other cues (sensory, bodily, etc.), might well be an appropriate context in which to observe such a discontinuity in TP.
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 11
- Mindfulness-induced changes in gamma band activity – Implications for the default mode network, self-reference and attention Clinical Neurophysiology September 21, 2011
- A mind you can count on: validating breath counting as a behavioral measure of mindfulness Frontiers in Psychology October 24, 2014
- Meditation Experience Predicts Introspective Accuracy PLoS One September 25, 2012
- Alterations in the sense of time, space and body in the Mindfulness-trained brain: A neurophenomenologically-guided MEG study Frontiers in Psychology May 22, 2014
- Visual Sensitivity and Mindfulness Meditation Perceptual and Motor Skills June 1, 1984
and 6 more in the library