Attentional processes and meditation.

Journal Article (Journal Article)

Visual attentional processing was examined in adult meditators and non-meditators on behavioral measures of change blindness, concentration, perspective-shifting, selective attention, and sustained inattentional blindness. Results showed that meditators (1) noticed more changes in flickering scenes and noticed them more quickly, (2) counted more accurately in a challenging concentration task, (3) identified a greater number of alternative perspectives in multiple perspectives images, and (4) showed less interference from invalid cues in a visual selective attention task, but (5) did not differ on a measure of sustained inattentional blindness. Together, results show that regular meditation is associated with more accurate, efficient, and flexible visual attentional processing across diverse tasks that have high face validity outside of the laboratory. Furthermore, effects were assessed in a context separate from actual meditation practice, suggesting that meditators' better visual attention is not just immediate, but extends to contexts separate from meditation practice.

Full Text

Duke Authors

Cited Authors

  • Hodgins, HS; Adair, KC

Published Date

  • December 2010

Published In

Volume / Issue

  • 19 / 4

Start / End Page

  • 872 - 878

PubMed ID

  • 20430650

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1090-2376

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 1053-8100

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1016/j.concog.2010.04.002

Language

  • eng