Author: Conscious Cogn.
Affiliation: Schofield TP1, Creswell JD2, Denson TF3.
Conference/Journal: 1UNSW Australia, Australia. Electronic address: timothy.schofield@anu.edu.au. 2Carnegie Mellon University, USA. 3UNSW Australia, Australia.
Date published: 2015 Aug 27
Other:
Volume ID: 37 , Pages: 63-70 , Special Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2015.08.007 , Word Count: 160
Prior research has linked mindfulness to improvements in attention, and suggested that the effects of mindfulness are particularly pronounced when individuals are cognitively depleted or stressed. Yet, no studies have tested whether mindfulness improves declarative awareness of unexpected stimuli in goal-directed tasks. Participants (N=794) were either depleted (or not) and subsequently underwent a brief mindfulness induction (or not). They then completed an inattentional blindness task during which an unexpected distractor appeared on the computer monitor. This task was used to assess declarative conscious awareness of the unexpected distractor's presence and the extent to which its perceptual properties were encoded. Mindfulness increased awareness of the unexpected distractor (i.e., reduced rates of inattentional blindness). Contrary to predictions, no mindfulness×depletion interaction emerged. Depletion however, increased perceptual encoding of the distractor. These results suggest that mindfulness may foster awareness of unexpected stimuli (i.e., reduce inattentional blindness).
Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Inc.
KEYWORDS:
Attention; Cognitive depletion; Declarative awareness; Mindfulness; Perceptual encoding
PMID: 26320867