Mindfulness meditation and relaxation training increases time sensitivity

Two experiments examined the effect of mindfulness meditation and relaxation on time perception using a temporal bisection task. In Experiment 1, the participants performed a temporal task before and after exercises of mindfulness meditation or relaxation. In Experiment 2, the procedure was similar than that used in Experiment 1, except that the participants were trained to mediate or relax every day over a period of several weeks. The results showed that mindfulness meditation exercises increased sensitivity to time and lengthened perceived time. However, this temporal improvement with meditation exercises was primarily observed in the experienced meditators. Our results also showed the experienced meditators were less anxious than the novice participants, and that the sensitivity to time increased when the level of anxiety decreased. Our results were explained by the practice of mindfulness technique that had developed individuals’ abilities in devoting more attention resources to temporal information processing.     

情绪的动机强度与工作记忆任务类型的协调性对自我控制任务的影响

考察趋近动机强度不同的积极情绪和回避动机强度不同的消极情绪与工作记忆的协调性对自我控制任务的影响。结果发现,与高趋近动机的积极情绪、高回避动机的消极情绪以及中性情绪相比,在低趋近动机的积极情绪下完成言语工作记忆以及在低回避动机的消极情绪下完成空间工作记忆,工作记忆成绩提高,而Stroop分数降低,这表明情绪与工作记忆的协调性受到情绪动机强度的影响。     

Performance costs when emotion tunes inappropriate cognitive abilities: implications for mental resources and behavior

Emotion tunes cognition, such that approach-motivated positive states promote verbal cognition, whereas withdrawal-motivated negative states promote spatial cognition (Gray, 2001). The current research examined whether self-control resources become depleted and influence subsequent behavior when emotion tunes an inappropriate cognitive tendency. In 2 experiments, either an approach-motivated positive state or a withdrawal-motivated negative state was induced, and then participants completed a verbal or a spatial working memory task creating conditions of emotion-cognition alignment (e.g., approach/verbal) or misalignment (e.g., approach/spatial). A control condition was also included. To examine behavioral costs due to depleted self-control resources, participants completed either a Stroop task (Stroop, 1935; Experiment 1) or a Black/White implicit association test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998; Experiment 2). Participants in the misalignment conditions performed worse on the Stroop task, and they were worse at controlling their implicit attitude biases on the IAT. Thus, when emotion tunes inappropriate cognitive tendencies for one's current environment, self-control resources become depleted, impairing behavioral control.     

The effect of mindfulness meditation on time perception

Research has increasingly focussed on the benefits of meditation in everyday life and performance. Mindfulness in particular improves attention, working memory capacity, and reading comprehension. Given its emphasis on moment-to-moment awareness, we hypothesised that mindfulness meditation would alter time perception. Using a within-subjects design, participants carried out a temporal bisection task, where several probe durations are compared to “short” and “long” standards. Following this, participants either listened to an audiobook or a meditation that focussed on the movement of breath in the body. Finally, participants completed the temporal bisection task for a second time. The control group showed no change after the listening task. However, meditation led to a relative overestimation of durations. Within an internal clock framework, a change in attentional resources can produce longer perceived durations. This meditative effect has wider implications for the use of mindfulness as an everyday practice and a basis for clinical treatment.     

Mindfulness meditation improves cognition: Evidence of brief mental training

Although research has found that long-term mindfulness meditation practice promotes executive functioning and the ability to sustain attention, the effects of brief mindfulness meditation training have not been fully explored. We examined whether brief meditation training affects cognition and mood when compared to an active control group. After four sessions of either meditation training or listening to a recorded book, participants with no prior meditation experience were assessed with measures of mood, verbal fluency, visual coding, and working memory. Both interventions were effective at improving mood but only brief meditation training reduced fatigue, anxiety, and increased mindfulness. Moreover, brief mindfulness training significantly improved visuo-spatial processing, working memory, and executive functioning. Our findings suggest that 4 days of meditation training can enhance the ability to sustain attention; benefits that have previously been reported with long-term meditators.     

Brief body-scan meditation practice improves somatosensory perceptual decision making

We have previously found that attention to internal somatic sensations (interoceptive attention) during a heart beat perception task increases the misperception of external touch on a somatic signal detection task (SSDT), during which healthy participants erroneously report feeling near-threshold vibrations presented to their fingertip in the absence of a stimulus. However, it has been suggested that mindful interoceptive attention should result in more accurate somatic perception, due to its non-evaluative and controlled nature. To investigate this possibility, 62 participants completed the SSDT before and after a period of brief body-scan mindfulness meditation training, or a control intervention (listening to a recorded story). The meditation intervention reduced tactile misperception and increased sensitivity during the SSDT. This finding suggests that the perceptual effects of interoceptive attention depend on its particular nature, and raises the possibility that body-scan meditation could reduce the misperception of physical symptoms in individuals with medically unexplained symptoms.     

The Regulatory Easy Street: Self-Regulation Below the Self-Control Threshold Does not Consume Regulatory Resources

We present and test a theory in which self-control is distinguished from broader acts of self-regulation when it is both effortful and conscious. In two studies, we examined whether acts of behavioral management that do not require effort are exempt from resource depletion. In Study 1, we found that a self-regulation task only reduced subsequent self-control for participants who had previously indicated that completing the task would require effort. In Study 2, we found that participants who completed a self-regulation task for two minutes did not evidence the subsequent impairment in self-control evident for participants who had completed the task for four or more minutes. Our results support the notion that self-regulation without effort falls below the self-control threshold and has different downstream consequences than self-control.     

Dealing efficiently with emotions: acceptance-based coping with negative emotions requires fewer resources than suppression

Previous studies have consistently shown that changing or avoiding emotions requires resources and therefore leads to impaired performance on a subsequent self-control task. The aim of the present study was to investigate the extent to which acceptance-based coping requires regulatory resources. Participants who accepted their emotions during exposure to a sad video performed better on a subsequent self-control task than participants who were instructed to suppress their emotions and a control group who received no instructions. These findings suggest that acceptance is an efficient strategy in terms of resources.     

A randomized controlled trial of compassion cultivation training: Effects on mindfulness,affect, and emotion regulation

Compassion is a positive orientation towards suffering that may be enhanced through compassion training and is thought to influence psychological functioning. However, the effects of compassion training on mindfulness, affect, and emotion regulation are not known. We conducted a randomized controlled trial in which 100 adults from the community were randomly assigned to either a 9-week compassion cultivation training (CCT) or a waitlist (WL) control condition. Participants completed self-report inventories that measured mindfulness, positive and negative affect, and emotion regulation. Compared to WL, CCT resulted in increased mindfulness and happiness, as well as decreased worry and emotional suppression. Within CCT, the amount of formal meditation practiced was related to reductions in worry and emotional suppression. These findings suggest that compassion cultivation training effects cognitive and emotion factors that support psychological flexible and adaptive functioning.     

Can implementation intentions help to overcome ego-depletion?

Research on ego-depletion suggests that the ability to self-regulate one’s behavior is limited: Exerting self-control on an initial task reduces performance on a subsequent task that also requires self-control. Two experiments tested whether forming implementation intentions could prevent ego-depletion and/or offset the effects of ego-depletion. Experiment 1 found that participants who formed implementation intentions during an initial ego-depleting task subsequently showed greater persistence on an unsolvable puzzles task compared to participants who did not form implementation intentions. Experiment 2 found that among participants who had been ego-depleted during an initial task, forming implementation intentions improved subsequent performance on a Stroop task to the level exhibited by non-depleted controls. Thus, implementation intentions help to enhance people’s ability to self-regulate their behavior.     

选择损耗自我控制资源:取舍效应还是信息加工难度效应?

研究以自我控制的资源模型为理论框架,从选择难度特征的视角出发,通过两项实验考察选择损耗自我控制资源的成因。结果发现,高取舍冲突组被试的stroop任务成绩显著低于低取舍冲突组被试,高、低阅读难度组被试的stroop任务成绩差异不显著;为自己做选择组被试的stroop任务成绩显著低于为他人做选择组被试,完成3选项和4选项任务组被试的stroop任务成绩差异不显著。研究表明,选择损耗效应是由选择的取舍难度而非信息加工难度造成。。     

正念冥想训练水平对情绪加工的影响

越来越多的研究表明,正念冥想训练影响情绪加工。本文从正念冥想训练水平（包括临时训练、短时训练和长期训练）角度出发,系统回顾了不同水平的正念冥想训练对情绪加工的调节效应。综述发现,不同水平正念冥想训练都能够提高个体情绪调节能力,临时正念冥想训练作为一种有效的情绪调节方法影响情绪加工,而短期正念冥想训练和长期禅修训练通过增加个体正念意识,增强个体情绪接受力影响情绪加工。未来的研究需进一步在区分正念冥想训练时间和正念冥想训练类别基础上,探讨正念冥想训练影响情绪加工的认知神经机制。     

From a state to a trait: Trajectories of state mindfulness in meditation during intervention predict changes in trait mindfulness

Theory suggests that heightening state mindfulness in meditation practice over time increases trait mindfulness, which benefits psychological health. We prospectively examined individual trajectories of state mindfulness in meditation during a mindfulness-based intervention in relation to changes in trait mindfulness and psychological distress. Each week during the eight-week intervention, participants reported their state mindfulness in meditation after a brief mindfulness meditation. Participants also completed pre- and post-intervention measures of trait mindfulness and psychological symptoms. Tests of combined latent growth and path models suggested that individuals varied significantly in their rates of change in state mindfulness in meditation during the intervention, and that these individual trajectories predicted pre-post intervention changes in trait mindfulness and distress. These findings support that increasing state mindfulness over repeated meditation sessions may contribute to a more mindful and less distressed disposition. However, individuals’ trajectories of change may vary and warrant further investigation.     

Self-control relies on glucose as a limited energy source: willpower is more than a metaphor

The present work suggests that self-control relies on glucose as a limited energy source. Laboratory tests of self-control (i.e., the Stroop task, thought suppression, emotion regulation, attention control) and of social behaviors (i.e., helping behavior, coping with thoughts of death, stifling prejudice during an interracial interaction) showed that (a) acts of self-control reduced blood glucose levels, (b) low levels of blood glucose after an initial self-control task predicted poor performance on a subsequent self-control task, and (c) initial acts of self-control impaired performance on subsequent self-control tasks, but consuming a glucose drink eliminated these impairments. Self-control requires a certain amount of glucose to operate unimpaired. A single act of self-control causes glucose to drop below optimal levels, thereby impairing subsequent attempts at self-control.     

自我损耗的视听通道效应

采用双任务实验范式,通过两个实验探讨了自我损耗的通道效应。实验1考察了完成视听工作记忆任务对执行手柄任务（非视听任务）的影响,结果发现,完成视觉损耗任务导致手柄任务的成绩显著地变差,完成听觉损耗任务、视听非损耗任务均对手柄任务的成绩没有影响。实验2考察了完成视听工作记忆任务对执行Stroop任务（视觉任务）的影响,结果发现,完成视觉损耗任务导致Stroop任务的成绩显著地变差,完成听觉损耗任务、视听非损耗任务对Stroop任务的成绩没有影响。研究结果表明同一自我控制任务通过视听通道完成对随后另一自我控制任务的影响不同,证实了自我损耗的视听通道效应。     

The idea of money counteracts ego depletion effects

Self-control draws upon a resource that is limited, such that acts of self-control deplete the resource, causing performance on subsequent acts of self-control to suffer. In this research, we demonstrate that activating the concept of money can buffer this ego depletion effect. Across two experiments using varied operationalizations of self-control, participants completed an initial task that depleted self-control resources or not, were then reminded of money or neutral concepts, and finally, completed a second task requiring self-control. In both experiments, among depleted participants, those reminded of money performed better on the second self-control task than those reminded of neutral concepts. Additional analyses in Experiment 2 suggest that this buffering effect was due to money reducing both the subjective difficulty and effort required on the second self-control task.     

自我损耗促进冒险行为

基于自我控制资源模型,本研究探讨了自我损耗对冒险行为的影响以及生理能量补充在其中的缓解作用。实验1和实验2分别通过“Stroop”和“非利手写作”任务操纵被试的自我损耗,两个实验均用气球模拟风险决策任务考察被试的冒险行为,并且通过摄入含有或不含有葡萄糖的柠檬水来操纵生理能量水平。结果发现,在排除无关变量后,高损耗者比低损耗者尽可能多地对气球进行充气以寻求奖赏(实验1和实验2),但饮用含葡萄糖的柠檬水能够有效降低这种反应(实验2)。该研究证实了自我损耗促进冒险行为,补充生理能量能有效缓解该效应。     

自我损耗下积极情绪对亲社会行为的影响

基于自我控制资源理论,本研究通过2个递进实验探究自我损耗下积极情绪对亲社会行为的影响。实验1采用“非利手写作”任务操纵被试的自我损耗,并诱发积极情绪,以被试在独裁者任务中分配的代币数为亲社会行为的衡量指标。结果发现：相比于低损耗组,高损耗组亲社会行为水平更低;诱发积极情绪能够补偿自我控制资源。实验2在此基础上,诱发高、低趋近动机积极情绪,考察自我损耗状态下不同强度趋近动机积极情绪对亲社会行为的影响。结果表明,低趋近动机积极情绪能缓解自我损耗后效。本研究证实了提高自我损耗将降低个体亲社会行为水平,诱发低趋近动机积极情绪可以缓解该效应。     

正念训练的去自动化效应：Stroop和前瞻记忆任务证据

研究显示正念训练对心理认知和健康有改善作用, 但少有研究用认知实验进行检验并探讨心理机制, 本研究将正常成人分为正念(训练)和对照组(等待)、使用Stroop任务和前瞻记忆任务, 进行前、后测考察。结果发现, 两种任务正念组后测反应时均低于前测, 且不一致条件下更显著, 对照组无差异。对前瞻记忆前后进行中任务的差值进行前、后测比较发现, 对照组后测显著小于前测, 正念组差异不显著。结果表明, 正念训练促进了Stroop和前瞻记忆任务的完成, 起到了抗自动化干扰、及阻止随任务熟悉加工更为自动化的作用。