scholarly journals Overcoming Automaticity Through Meditation

Mindfulness ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Maran ◽  
Martin Woznica ◽  
Sebastian Moder ◽  
Marco Furtner ◽  
Elias Jehle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Applied Research ◽  
Cognitive Conflict ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Performance Tasks ◽  
Wait List Control ◽  
Sharp Focus ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Open Monitoring ◽  
Promising Avenue

Abstract Objectives Meditation practice has recently moved into applied research to improve cognitive functions. However, it is a multifaceted practice, with focused attention meditation relying on a sharp focus, and open monitoring meditation relying on a diffuse awareness. This study aims to assess the effects of differential alterations of cognition following distinct meditative training and focuses on practitioners’ tendency to fall victim to erroneous automaticity in responding when faced with cognitive conflict. Methods Seventy-three individuals were randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups (internally focused attention meditation, externally focused attention meditation, open monitoring meditation) or a wait list control group. The meditation groups were trained over the course of 4 weeks and eight sessions. Changes in proneness to erroneous automatic responding were tested using two cognitive performance tasks that induce learned or instructed automaticity (Dot Pattern Expectancy paradigm, NEXT-paradigm). Results Overall, meditation training generally improved overcoming learned automaticity (rs = .26–.36, ps = .002–.031) but not instructed automaticity compared to the control condition. Furthermore, data suggest open monitoring outperformed focused attention in overcoming learned automaticity in one task (rs = .31–.56, ps ≤ .001–.009). Conclusions Our results provide evidence for meditative training to facilitate practitioners’ ability to select the most appropriate course of action against overlearned habits in light of the peculiarities of their current situation. Open monitoring meditation is a particularly promising avenue for reducing one’s liability to erroneous habits.

Meditation-induced cognitive-control states regulate working memory task performance

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182199782
Author(s):  
Ke Ma ◽  
Na Deng ◽  
Bernhard Hommel
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Similar Pattern ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Single Bout ◽  
Open Monitoring ◽  
Demand Condition ◽  
Back Task

Single-bout focused-attention meditation (FAM) and open-monitoring meditation (OMM) are assumed to bias metacontrol states towards more persistent versus more flexible processing, respectively. In Experiment 1, we tested whether monitoring and updating of working memory (WM) representations in an N-back task with high (3-back), medium (2-back), and low (1-back) WM demands (varied within participants) is affected by preceding single-bout FAM or OMM meditation (varied between participants and compared with a control group). The results showed that FAM promotes WM performance in the medium (2-back), but not in the high (3-back) or low (1-back) demand condition, whereas OMM did not affect WM performance. A replication of the 2-back condition only (Experiment 2) showed no meditation effect, but a replication of the 3-back condition only (Experiment 3) produced a similar pattern as the 2-back condition in Experiment 1, with FAM promoting performance compared with OMM and the control condition. Taken together, these findings suggest that the single-bout FAM does promote WM performance but only if the capacity demands are neither too high nor too low.

From many to one: Meditation and the plasticity of the predictive mind

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruben Laukkonen ◽  
Heleen A Slagter
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
The Self ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Conceptual Processing ◽  
Current State ◽  
Contemplative Science ◽  
Open Monitoring ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
The Brain

How profoundly can humans change their own minds? In this paper we offer a unifying account of meditation under the predictive processing view of living organisms. We start from relatively simple axioms. First, the brain is an organ that serves to predict based on past experience, both phylogenetic and ontogenetic. Second, meditation serves to bring one closer to the here and now by disengaging from anticipatory processes. We propose that practicing meditation therefore gradually reduces predictive processing, in particular counterfactual cognition—the tendency to construct abstract and temporally deep representations—until all conceptual processing falls away. Our Many- to-One account also places three main styles of meditation (focused attention, open monitoring, and non-dual meditation) on a single continuum, where each technique progressively relinquishes increasingly engrained habits of prediction, including the self. This deconstruction can also make the above processes available to introspection, permitting certain insights into one’s mind. Our review suggests that our framework is consistent with the current state of empirical and (neuro)phenomenological evidence in contemplative science, and is ultimately illuminating about the plasticity of the predictive mind. It also serves to highlight that contemplative science can fruitfully go beyond cognitive enhancement, attention, and emotion regulation, to its more traditional goal of removing past conditioning and creating conditions for potentially profound insights. Experimental rigor, neurophenomenology, and no-report paradigms combined with neuroimaging are needed to further our understanding of how different styles of meditation affect predictive processing and the self, and the plasticity of the predictive mind more generally.

DigiKnowIt News: Educating youth about pediatric clinical trials using an interactive, multimedia educational website

2021 ◽  
pp. 136749352110037
Author(s):  
Alison E. Parker ◽  
Tracy M. Scull ◽  
Abigail M. Morrison
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Interactive Multimedia ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Intervention Group ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Wait List ◽  
Wait List Control Group ◽  
Wait List Control ◽  
Satisfaction Questionnaire ◽  
Study Participants

Pediatric clinical trials allow for the testing of appropriate and effective treatments for children. However, some challenges exist with recruitment. This study examined the effectiveness of DigiKnowIt News, an interactive, multimedia website (which includes activities, videos, and comic books) designed to educate children about clinical trials. A randomized controlled trial was conducted in 2018 with 91 participants ( M age = 10.92 years; SD = 2.06). Participants were randomly assigned to intervention or wait-list control groups and completed questionnaires at pretest and posttest (1 week later) about their knowledge, attitudes, beliefs about clinical trials, and self-efficacy for participating in clinical trials. Participants in the intervention group received access to DigiKnowIt News between pretest and posttest and completed a satisfaction questionnaire at posttest. At the end of the study, participants in the wait-list control group were offered the option to use the website and complete a satisfaction questionnaire. At posttest, participants in the intervention group, compared to participants in the wait-list control group, had more knowledge about clinical trials and more reported confidence for participating in clinical trials. Participants reported high levels of satisfaction with DigiKnowIt News. The findings suggest that an educational website can improve factors related to increasing rates of participation in clinical trials.

Combined Memory Training: An Approach for Episodic Memory Deficits in Traumatic Brain Injury

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (2S) ◽  
pp. 920-932
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Cochran D'Angelo ◽  
Beth A. Ober ◽  
Gregory K. Shenaut
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
Treatment Group ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Semantic Memory ◽  
Memory Deficits ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Wait List ◽  
Wait List Control Group ◽  
Wait List Control

Purpose The study aimed to test a combination of semantic memory and traditional episodic memory therapies on episodic memory deficits in adults with traumatic brain injury. Method Twenty-five participants who had been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and had episodic memory deficits were randomly assigned either to a combined memory treatment group ( n = 16) or to a wait-list control group ( n = 9). Before and after treatment, they completed standardized neuropsychological testing for episodic memory and related cognitive domains, including the California Verbal Learning Test–Second Edition, the Controlled Oral Word Association Test, the University of Southern California Repeatable Episodic Memory Test, the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence–Second Edition Matrices, the Test of Everyday Attention, the Memory Assessment Clinics Self-Rating Scale, the Expressive Vocabulary Test–Second Edition, and the Story Recall subtest from the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test. In addition to a traditional episodic memory therapy, the treatment group received a novel semantic memory–focused therapy, which involved participants finding meaningful connections between diverse concepts represented by sets of two or three words. Results The treatment group demonstrated statistically significant improvement in memory for list learning tasks, and there was a significant difference from pretest to posttest between the treatment group and the wait-list control group. Clinical significance was demonstrated for the treatment group using minimally important difference calculations. Conclusion Combined memory therapy resulted in significant improvements in episodic memory, semantic memory, and attention, in comparison to no treatment. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14049968

scholarly journals Mathematical Critical Thinking and Curiosity Attitude in Problem Based Learning and Cognitive Conflict Strategy: A Study in Number Theory course

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zetriuslita Zetriuslita ◽  
Wahyudin Wahyudin ◽  
Jarnawi Jarnawi
Keyword(s):  
Number Theory ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Problem Based Learning ◽  
Cognitive Conflict ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Control Group Design ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Conflict Strategy

This research aims to describe and analyze result of applying Problem-Based Learning and Cognitive Conflict Strategy (PBLCCS) in increasing students’ Mathematical Critical Thinking (MCT) ability and Mathematical Curiosity Attitude (MCA). Adopting a quasi-experimental method with pretest-posttest control group design and using mixed method with sequential explanatory strategy, the study involves undergraduate students of Mathematics Education Program at a private university in Riau, Indonesia, academic year 2015/2016 enrolled in Number Theory course. Quantitative data were obtained from essay test and questionnaire whereas qualitative data were from interview and observation. The findings show that; (1) there is a difference between MCT ability taught by PBLCCS and Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI), (2) there is no significant difference between MCA taught by PBLCCS and EDI, (3) students still face obstacles in developing their critical thinking skills when solving matematical problems.

The effort of meditation: Cardiac pre-ejection period during first session of focused-attention and open-monitoring meditation

2018 ◽  
Vol 131 ◽  
pp. S83
Author(s):  
M.A. Immink ◽  
M. Stolte ◽  
D.T. Scheepers ◽  
E. Sjak-Shie ◽  
H. van Steenbergen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Focused Attention ◽  
Open Monitoring ◽  
First Session

scholarly journals Expressive arts therapy for hospitalized children: a pilot study measuring cortisol levels

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Garret Yount ◽  
Kenneth Rachlin ◽  
Jane Siegel
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Treatment Group ◽  
Expressive Arts ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Hospitalized Children ◽  
Expressive Arts Therapy ◽  
Wait List Control Group ◽  
Wait List Control ◽  
Group A ◽  
Cortisol Levels

This pilot study aimed at assessing the feasibility of capturing physiological evidence of reduced stress for hospitalized children following expressive arts therapy. Twenty-five patients were offered a novel form of expressive arts therapy, termed Healing Sock Creatures, during their stay in the hospital. Saliva samples were collected at two times in the afternoon for the purpose of measuring salivary cortisol levels. The patients were randomly assigned to two groups, a treatment group or a wait-list control group. A trend of decreased cortisol levels was apparent following therapy in the treatment group and concurrent steroid treatment, which is common in intensive care units, does not appear to interfere with the ability to measure decreased cortisol levels following therapy. Our results support the design of a formal study to assess physiological biomarkers of stress in hospital settings. To our knowledge, this is the first in-patient study assessing a biomarker of stress following expressive arts therapy for children

scholarly journals Randomized trial of a teleconference-delivered fatigue management program for people with multiple sclerosis

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (9) ◽  
pp. 1130-1140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcia Finlayson ◽  
Katharine Preissner ◽  
Chi Cho ◽  
Matthew Plow
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Sclerosis ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Management Program ◽  
Secondary Outcome ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Wait List ◽  
Impact Fatigue ◽  
Wait List Control ◽  
Fatigue Management ◽  
Fatigue Severity

Background: Previous studies support the efficacy and effectiveness of face-to-face group-based fatigue management education for people with multiple sclerosis (MS). Nevertheless, many people are unable to access these programs due to environmental barriers. Objectives: To test the efficacy and effectiveness of a group-based, teleconference-delivered fatigue management program for people with MS. Methods: A randomly allocated two-group time series design with a wait-list control group was used. In total 190 participants were allocated (94 intervention, 96 wait-list control). Primary outcomes (fatigue impact, fatigue severity, health-related quality of life (HRQOL)) were measured before, immediately after, at 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months post. Secondary outcome (self-efficacy) was measured at the same points. Effectiveness (intent-to-treat) and efficacy (per protocol) analyses were conducted. Results: The program was more effective and efficacious than control for reducing fatigue impact but not fatigue severity. Before and after comparisons with the pooled sample demonstrated efficacy and effectiveness for fatigue impact, fatigue severity, and 6 of 8 HRQOL dimensions. Changes were maintained for 6 months with small to moderate effect sizes. Conclusion: The results offer strong support for the viability of teleconference-delivered fatigue management education for enabling people with MS to manage this disabling symptom.

scholarly journals New Challenges Regarding the Intervention of Musculoskeletal Risk in Truck Service Garages

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 181
Author(s):  
Coral Oliver Hernández ◽  
Shimeng Li ◽  
María José Aguado Benedí ◽  
Inmaculada Mateo Rodríguez
Keyword(s):  
Musculoskeletal Disorders ◽  
Initial Assessment ◽  
Risk Level ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Entire Body ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Postural Load ◽  
Rapid Entire Body Assessment ◽  
Experimental Group ◽  
Postural Training

Background: The automotive industry is heavily affected by sick leaves caused by the handling of loads and using postures that produce musculoskeletal disorders. Research is needed to analyse their causes and find possible solutions to eliminate or mitigate these risks. Objective: Our objective was to analyse the level of musculoskeletal risk in the different work tasks performed by truck and bus mechanics. Our intention is also to analyse whether postural training and feedback can help reduce risk. Methods: The rapid entire body assessment (REBA) was used to assess the postures performed by 35 mechanics from eight branches throughout Spain. The participants were subsequently divided randomly into two groups (experimental group and control group). The experimental group (EG) was given training and feedback on their postures and the control group (CG) was not offered any type of intervention. A few months after the initial assessment, their postural load in the usual tasks was re-evaluated. Results: An overall average REBA Score: 10.49 ± 1.33. The main risk was found in the trunk and arms with sustained above-the-head postures. EG’s second results are significantly improved compared to the first (p = 0.026 *). Conclusions: These jobs have a high-risk level of musculoskeletal disorders. The course of action presented with postural training and feedback has shown satisfactory results. Nevertheless, given the size of the sample, further research will be needed to delve deeper into this possibility as a future line of intervention.

scholarly journals Psycho-pedagogical conditions for involving students in productive and creative activity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ю.В. Варданян ◽  
К.А. Кукса
Keyword(s):  
Program Implementation ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Applied Research ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Creative Activity ◽  
Children's Art ◽  
Estimated Parameters ◽  
Additional Education ◽  
Experimental Group

Актуальность статьи обусловлена необходимостью усиления развивающих возможностей и творческой направленности деятельности в системе дополнительного образования детей. Цель статьи заключается в апробации идей, относящихся к обоснованию и реализации психолого-педагогических условий, способствующих приобщению обучающихся к продуктивно-созидательной деятельности и развитию их художественной продуктивно-созидательной компетенции в образовательном процессе детской школы искусств. Авторами приведена характеристика уровня компонентов исследуемой компетенции, обоснована программа ее развития. Для доказательства эффективности реализации программы и созданных условий сравнивались изменения исследуемой компетенции. В экспериментальной группе доказана значимость сдвига количественных данных уровня компонентов исследуемой компетенции с помощью критерия знаков G по всем оцениваемым параметрам: Gэмп. < Gкр. при p < 0,01. В контрольной группе значимых изменений не обнаружено. В статье обобщены общие и дифференцированные психолого-педагогические условия приобщения обучающихся экспериментальной группы к продуктивно-созидательной деятельности, подходы к созданию которых могут быть использованы в прикладных исследованиях и в образовательном процессе учреждений дополнительного образования детей. The relevance of the article is determined by the need to strengthen the developing capabilities and creative orientation of activity in the system of additional education of children. The purpose of the article is to test the ideas related to the justification and implementation of psycho-pedagogical conditions that contribute to involving students in productive and creative activity and developing their artistic productive and creative competence in the educational process of children’s art school. The authors characterize the level of components of the competence and substantiate the program of its development. To prove the effectiveness of the program implementation and the created conditions, changes in the competence of students were compared. In the experimental group, the significance of the shift in the quantitative data of the level of the competence components was proved using the criterion of signs G for all the estimated parameters: Gemf. < Gcr.at p < 0,01. No significant changes were found in the control group. The article summarizes the general and differentiated psycho-pedagogical conditions for involving students of the experimental group in productive and creative activity, approaches to the creation of which can be used in applied research and in the educational process.

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