Session 7: Mindfulness and meditation-based attentional training

A week ago, Elizabeth and I attended a mediation class organized by the Art of Living Foundation and I Meditate NY. The class included roughly three sections: first, introductions of the instructor and students, during which we shared our reasons for being there and what we hoped to accomplish; second, learning a breathing technique; and third, a 20-minute guided meditation.

The instructor emphasized the importance of breathing as both a focus point to stay in the present and as a relaxation or energizing technique because different breathing patterns are associated with different emotional and arousal states. We practiced what the instructor called “ocean breaths,” which supposedly mimic sleep. This portion of the class did not seem related to training attention, though the instructor did say it was to put us in a proper mindset for the actual meditation.

Then, in the meditation itself, we focused in sequence on various aspects of the present: our surroundings, particularly the ambient sounds; different parts of our bodies; our thoughts; and our feelings. The instructor specifically told us to focus but not judge and to accept and become at one with the experiences we focused on.

Based on the descriptions of meditation techniques in Lutz et al. (2008)*, our meditation fits into the category of focused attention meditation, which focuses and sustains attention on an object and trains monitoring of attention and distractions and re-engaging attention onto the intended object and away from distractions. But the elements of our meditation in which we monitored our thoughts and emotions resembled open monitoring meditation, in which one monitors one's experience without focusing on any explicit object (Lutz et al., 2008).

Regardless of the category of meditation we did, we did seem to practice certain aspects of mindfulness that are associated with meditation more broadly, specifically observing, acting with awareness (via the explicit instructions to focus on particular aspects of our experience), and non-judgment and also possibly emotional non-reactivity (Baer et al.,2006**). Something unexpected in terms of non-reactivity happened when I focused on the ambient sounds during our meditation: I have always found the traffic (especially the emergency vehicles) noises of New York City jarring and distracting, but by focusing on those sounds and letting go of judgment, I felt the discords resolve into an almost soothing background noise. So anecdotally, at least, I could believe that meditation in the form that we learned could improve attention, if nothing else than because it can help one let go of the distracting quality of one's surroundings.

But if our meditation fits into the focused attention attention category, there is also empirical evidence that it might be a way to train attention, albeit indirectly. MacLean et al. (2010)*** found evidence that focused attention meditation in relatively experienced meditators improves perceptual sensitivity and thus reduces vigilance decline on sustained attention tasks by making the tasks less cognitively demanding. Similarly, Jensen et al. (2011)**** suggested that mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), which is based on meditation and attempts to train present focus and non-judgment, can reduce vigilance decrements, improve perceptual thresholds (consistent with MacLean et al., 2010), and improve working memory capacity in relatively inexperienced meditators. While neither of these studies found direct effects of meditation on sustained attention capacity, these indirect improvements are a way in which focused attention meditation can improve performance on tasks requiring sustained attention.

Thus, even though the empirical evidence does not show direct effects of meditation on the mechanisms of sustained attention, the MacLean et al. (2010) and Jensen et al.(2011) studies and my own experience as a novice in a meditation class suggest that meditation could be beneficial to sustained attention even if it does not train attention directly.

*Lutz, A., Slagter, H. A., Dunne, J. D., & Davidson, R. J. (2008). Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12, 163-169.

 **Baer, R. A., Smith, G. T., Hopkins, J., Krietemeyer, J., & Toney, L. (2006). Using self-report assessment methods to explore facets of mindfulness. Assessment, 13, 27-45.

***MacLean, K. A. et al. (2010). Intensive meditation training improves perceptual discrimination and sustained attention. Psychological Science, 21, 829-839.

****Jensen, C. G., Vangkilder, S., Frokjaer, V., & Hasselbalch, S. G. (2011). Mindfulness training affects attention--Or is it attentional effort? Journal of Experimental Psychology, General, 141, 106-123.