TY - JOUR
T1 - Intensive meditation training improves perceptual discrimination and sustained attention.
AU - MacLean, Katherine A.
AU - Ferrer, Emilio
AU - Aichele, Stephen R.
AU - Bridwell, David A.
AU - Zanesco, Anthony P.
AU - Jacobs, Tonya L.
AU - King, Brandon G.
AU - Rosenberg, Erika L.
AU - Sahdra, Baljinder K.
AU - Shaver, Phillip R.
AU - Wallace, B. Alan
AU - Mangun, George R.
AU - Saron, Clifford D.
PY - 2010/6
Y1 - 2010/6
N2 - The ability to focus one's attention underlies success in many everyday tasks, but voluntary attention cannot be sustained for extended periods of time. In the laboratory, sustained-attention failure is manifest as a decline in perceptual sensitivity with increasing time on task, known as the vigilance decrement. We investigated improvements in sustained attention with training (approximately 5 hr/day for 3 months), which consisted of meditation practice that involved sustained selective attention on a chosen stimulus (e.g., the participant's breath). Participants were randomly assigned either to receive training first (n = 30) or to serve as waiting-list controls and receive training second (n = 30). Training produced improvements in visual discrimination that were linked to increases in perceptual sensitivity and improved vigilance during sustained visual attention. Consistent with the resource model of vigilance, these results suggest that perceptual improvements can reduce the resource demand imposed by target discrimination and thus make it easier to sustain voluntary attention.
AB - The ability to focus one's attention underlies success in many everyday tasks, but voluntary attention cannot be sustained for extended periods of time. In the laboratory, sustained-attention failure is manifest as a decline in perceptual sensitivity with increasing time on task, known as the vigilance decrement. We investigated improvements in sustained attention with training (approximately 5 hr/day for 3 months), which consisted of meditation practice that involved sustained selective attention on a chosen stimulus (e.g., the participant's breath). Participants were randomly assigned either to receive training first (n = 30) or to serve as waiting-list controls and receive training second (n = 30). Training produced improvements in visual discrimination that were linked to increases in perceptual sensitivity and improved vigilance during sustained visual attention. Consistent with the resource model of vigilance, these results suggest that perceptual improvements can reduce the resource demand imposed by target discrimination and thus make it easier to sustain voluntary attention.
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U2 - 10.1177/0956797610371339
DO - 10.1177/0956797610371339
M3 - Article
C2 - 20483826
AN - SCOPUS:79551492828
SN - 0956-7976
VL - 21
SP - 829
EP - 839
JO - Psychological Science
JF - Psychological Science
IS - 6
ER -