Abstract
Practitioners with years of mindfulness training (MT) have a reduced attentional blink (AB), relative to novices and non-practitioners. There is still a lack of evidence regarding the impact of relatively short-term intensive traditional MT on AB. Moreover, it is unknown which component(s) of mindfulness underlie mindfulness-associated reductions in AB. Eighty-nine Chinese subjects were randomized into a MT group (N = 44) and a control (CON) group (N = 45). The participants in the CON group were waitlisted for the opportunity to participate in the training program during the 8 weeks that the MT group underwent training. Before (pretest) and after (posttest) the MT program, the subjects completed the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), Peace-of-mind questionnaire (POM), and an AB task. Ultimately, 73 participants (MT group/CON group: 35/38) completed the study. From the pretest to the posttest, the MT group exhibited increases in FFMQ scores (total scores, observing subscores, and non-reactivity subscores) and POM scores, as well as improved accuracy in the AB task and a reduction in the lag-1 sparing effect. Increases in T2 accuracy in the AB correlated with improved non-reactivity. These findings broaden our understanding of the association between mindfulness and AB, and support the supposition that the skill of mindful non-reactivity plays an important role in reducing AB.
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Data Availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the NNSF (National Natural Science Foundation of China) under Grant (31970926) to Fei Luo; the NNSF under grant (31271092) to Jinyan Wang; the NNSF grant (31671140) to Ning Wang; the Scientific Foundation of Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Y9CX441005) to Yuzheng Wang; grants from CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology (KLMH 2014G01, KLMH2016K02) and a grant from the initiation fund of the CAS/SAFEA International Partnership Program for Creative Research Teams (Y2CX131003).
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Wang, Y., Xiao, L., Gong, W. et al. Mindful non-reactivity is associated with improved accuracy in attentional blink testing: A randomized controlled trial. Curr Psychol 41, 8908–8920 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01377-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01377-4