Browsing by Subject "Mindfulness (Psychology)"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Integrative Mechanics of Mind Wandering and their Effect on Creativity
    (2017) Gardner, Eric; Compton, Rebecca J. (Rebecca Jean)
    Previous literature has many rich findings on the mechanisms, implications and effects of mind-wandering. For example, Baird et. al (2012) found that mind-wandering can facilitate creativity. Furthermore, Miles et. al (2010) have found that the directionality of one’s mind-wandering can be influenced by temporal primes. We attempt to replicate these findings in our study in addition to analyzing other potential factors influencing mind-wandering, such as mood and intentionality of mind-wandering sessions. The introduction presents a comprehensive review explaining theoretical and neurological mechanisms of mind-wandering, followed by literature reviews on how mood, intentionality and other elements of mind wandering operate. Though we were unable to replicate Baird’s and Miles’s studies, our study indicates a relation between being presented with forward motion and sustained mind-wandering sessions. Furthermore, high levels of alpha power have a positive relationship with increasing fluency scores on the Uunusual Use Task. Though previous literature indicates correlations between non-positive moods and past-oriented mind-wandering, we failed to find a correlation between the directionality of one’s mind-wandering and mood. Additional findings are also discussed to provide a more complete picture on how an individual can utilize mind-wandering as a tool to enhance their creativity.
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    Tension Between Promotion & Description of Mindfulness: Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Attempts to Secularize Mindfulness & The Losses Associated with It
    (2024) Merriam, Marissa; McGuire, Anne Marie
    Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of the well-studied and popular Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program, promotes mindfulness as non-spiritual and only related to Buddhism in origin. This message is reflected in some of what he writes in his bestselling books, Wherever You Go There You Are and Meditation Is Not What You Think. However, close reading of these two texts reveals both the Buddhist and spiritual elements of mindfulness as conceived by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Therefore, a tension exists between mindfulness as Kabat-Zinn promotes it and the picture one comes to have of mindfulness from reading his works. This tension is directly related to his goals of spreading mindfulness to a skeptical American community and his need for credibility within the scientific community. When Kabat-Zinn first wrote Wherever You Go in 1994, it would have been a great danger to his goals of spreading mindfulness to highlight either the Buddhist or spiritual elements. However, while there are still skeptics reluctant to include any mention of religion or spirituality, the scientific community is now more accepting of such topics than it once was. This gradual shift in the scientific community paired with the great popularity of mindfulness practices means that it is now a loss and not a risk for Kabat-Zinn to continue to try to separate mindfulness from Buddhism and spirituality in his representations of mindfulness to secular Americans and the scientific community.
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    The Effect of Mindfulness and Cell Phone Distractions on Mind Wandering
    (2018) Gorman, Emily; Compton, Rebecca J. (Rebecca Jean)
    The goal of this study is to examined factors that influence mind wandering, predicting that technology, specifically cell phone distractions, will cause a person to mind wander more and mindfulness will reduce a person’s susceptibility to mind wandering even with a technological distraction. Fifty subjects, all undergraduate students, participated in a sustained attention to response task (a go/no-go task) and had their brain waves measured using an EEG machine to look at their P300 peak, a peak related to attention. Half of participants received a phone call during the task and half did not. The participants listened to an audio clip before participating in the task, with half of participants primed with mindful breathing and the other half listened to a control audio. All participants answered self-report questions assessing mind wandering. Contrary to prediction, receiving a cell phone call decreased the amount of errors a person made on the sustained attention to response task. Also, the mindfulness prime caused a person’s P300 peak to increase between the two blocks which was contrary to the hypothesis.
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    The Effects of a Mindfulness Induction on the Brain's Response to Performance Errors
    (2015) Pizzuto, Jacquelyne; Compton, Rebecca J. (Rebecca Jean)
    The current study aimed to investigate the effects of a mindfulness induction on the brain’s response to performance errors, specifically whether a mindfulness induction would affect cognitive performance and the neural correlates of performance monitoring. Three neural correlates of performance monitoring were examined: the errorrelated negativity (ERN), error positivity (Pe), and errorrelated alpha suppression (ERAS). The mindfulness induction was intended to induce mindful awareness via a short audio clip with meditative breathing exercises, whereas the control condition simply listened to an educational audio clip on mindfulness. All participants then completed a Stroop test while EEG was recorded. The groups showed similar performance on the Stroop test, and ERN and Pe amplitudes did not differ across groups. However, alpha power was marginally different across groups, where those in the mindfulness condition showed higher alpha power following correct trials than error trials. Moreover, several different measures of individual differences, including awareness level, anxiety level, worry level, and mindfulness experience level were associated with these neural correlates. The results may reflect the idea that neural responses to errors are affected differently by a mindfulness induction and are predicted by various measures of individual differences in complex ways.
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    The Effects of Mindfulness on Mind-Wandering and ERP Measures of Attention
    (2020) Gordon, Maya; Compton, Rebecca J. (Rebecca Jean)
    The present study aimed to examine whether a brief mindfulness breathing exercise would reduce the amount of mind-wandering and used the P300 portion of the ERP peak as a neural measure of attention. Participants (N = 24) listened to a brief recording designed to elicit mindfulness or a control recording and then completed a sustained attention task while EEG was recorded.. Though mindful breathing reduced self-reported mind-wandering, P300 peaks to stimuli were not affected by mindfulness or mind-wandering. Future studies should further examine these questions with a larger sample size.
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    The Influence of a Brief Mindfulness Induction on the Neural Response to Errors
    (2015) Bing-Canar, Hanaan; Compton, Rebecca J. (Rebecca Jean)
    The present study assessed the ability of a mindfulness meditation induction to affect the brain’s error monitoring process, as indexed by the error related negativity (ERN), error positivity (Pe), and error related alpha suppression (ERAS). Participants (n=37) engaged in a mindfulness of breathing audio exercise or attended to a control listening exercise, depending on condition, to examine the influence of the mindfulness induction on error related neural phenomena and performance on the Stroop test. Self-report measures of mindfulness, anxiety, and worry were also collected, including the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ), the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and a brief survey assessing prior mindfulness experience. Analysis of participants’ self-report, EEG, and performance data indicated no influence of the mindfulness induction on the ERN, Pe, or task performance. Instead, these two ERP components were related to individual self-report measures. However, ERAS did respond to the mindfulness induction, as participants in the mindfulness condition showed enhanced alpha power following control trials relative to controls. Together, these data suggest that neural responses to errors are predicted in complex ways by individual differences in mindfulness and anxiety. Findings are discussed as they relate to the adaptive role of mindfulness practices.