Skip to main content
Journal cover image

Mindfulness and mind wandering: The protective effects of brief meditation in anxious individuals.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Xu, M; Purdon, C; Seli, P; Smilek, D
Published in: Consciousness and cognition
May 2017

Mind wandering can be costly, especially when we are engaged in attentionally demanding tasks. Preliminary studies suggest that mindfulness can be a promising antidote for mind wandering, albeit the evidence is mixed. To better understand the exact impact of mindfulness on mind wandering, we had a sample of highly anxious undergraduate students complete a sustained-attention task during which off-task thoughts including mind wandering were assessed. Participants were randomly assigned to a meditation or control condition, after which the sustained-attention task was repeated. In general, our results indicate that mindfulness training may only have protective effects on mind wandering for anxious individuals. Meditation prevented the increase of mind wandering over time and ameliorated performance disruption during off-task episodes. In addition, we found that the meditation intervention appeared to promote a switch of attentional focus from the internal to present-moment external world, suggesting important implications for treating worrying in anxious populations.

Duke Scholars

Altmetric Attention Stats
Dimensions Citation Stats

Published In

Consciousness and cognition

DOI

EISSN

1090-2376

ISSN

1053-8100

Publication Date

May 2017

Volume

51

Start / End Page

157 / 165

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Treatment Outcome
  • Thinking
  • Mindfulness
  • Meditation
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Attention
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Xu, M., Purdon, C., Seli, P., & Smilek, D. (2017). Mindfulness and mind wandering: The protective effects of brief meditation in anxious individuals. Consciousness and Cognition, 51, 157–165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2017.03.009
Xu, Mengran, Christine Purdon, Paul Seli, and Daniel Smilek. “Mindfulness and mind wandering: The protective effects of brief meditation in anxious individuals.Consciousness and Cognition 51 (May 2017): 157–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2017.03.009.
Xu M, Purdon C, Seli P, Smilek D. Mindfulness and mind wandering: The protective effects of brief meditation in anxious individuals. Consciousness and cognition. 2017 May;51:157–65.
Xu, Mengran, et al. “Mindfulness and mind wandering: The protective effects of brief meditation in anxious individuals.Consciousness and Cognition, vol. 51, May 2017, pp. 157–65. Epmc, doi:10.1016/j.concog.2017.03.009.
Xu M, Purdon C, Seli P, Smilek D. Mindfulness and mind wandering: The protective effects of brief meditation in anxious individuals. Consciousness and cognition. 2017 May;51:157–165.
Journal cover image

Published In

Consciousness and cognition

DOI

EISSN

1090-2376

ISSN

1053-8100

Publication Date

May 2017

Volume

51

Start / End Page

157 / 165

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Treatment Outcome
  • Thinking
  • Mindfulness
  • Meditation
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Attention