Mindfulness meditation and control results to Stroop interference in selective attention

Document Type:Lab Report

Subject Area:Psychology

Document 1

The participants in the research included 50 individuals for the control experiment and 52 for the measurement of the Stroop interference. The independent variables of the test include mini-intervention of the mindfulness meditation and control, while the dependent variable is the Stroop interference, which is measured as the correct time of incongruent trials minus reaction time to congruent trials. The results showed that the Stroop effect is equal for the mini mindfulness meditation control and research participants. The methodology entailed the statistical use of the SPSS and screening for normality with participants meditating and the control group listening to speech with eyes open. Participants in the Mindfulness Meditation Condition were significantly less impaired by incongruent colour-word pairings, than participants in the Control Condition.

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The mind has better attention due to the capability to control stress. The Stroop Effect is a test of selective attention or inhibitory control, which tests people’s abilities to selectively attend to one stimulus feature and ignore another stimulus feature that competes for attention (Kozasa, Sato, Lacerda, Barreiros, Radvany, Russell, & Amaro, 2012). In this experiment participants respond to the COLOUR and ignore the WORD and in control experiment the participants focus on both to identify the Stroop inteference. In research the Stroop interference appears to take the neutral position but the current literature focuses on the sematic interference, facilitation and the Stroop asynchrony. The study on incongruent colors is less utilized compared to the work of congruent colors in explaining mindfulness.

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Mindfulness is predicted to increase the selective attention and the cognitive capability of understanding participants in research for selective attention. Increased research showcases that a three month of mindfulness training result to increased attention and the cognitive link deficit. The increased research on the mindfulness shows that the practice led to the increased mental attention control for the participants. Limiting and directing attention is as a result of increased training which also improves on the alertness of the individuals which results to the less difference in Stroop interference. Short-term meditation suggests that emotional Stroop effect is less automated which implies the increase in the psychological domain attention control. The age and gender of participants was not recorded to ensure anonymity of participation within a required unit of study.

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Materials The primary task in this experiment was modelled on the original Stroop Task (Stroop, 1935). The digital Stroop Task was presented via PsyToolkit, an online experiment presentation platform (Stoet, 2010; 2017). The stimuli were the words RED, GREEN, YELLOW and BLUE, presented in the congruent coloured ink (Congruent Trials) or incongruent coloured ink (Incongruent Trials). The words were presented in the centre of the screen on a black background and remained on the screen until the participant responded, with a maximum timeout of 3000ms. Instructions were given to each class verbally and then repeated at the start of the experiment in text format. After reading through the instructions, participants completed the Mini-Intervention Phase. Assignment to Mindfulness or Control interventions was made randomly at the class level, with four classes completing each condition.

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Participants in the Mindfulness Condition were asked to sit quietly with eyes closed and arms relaxed, and follow along with the instructions on the Mindfulness Meditation Recording, which was listened to using personal headphones. Participants in the Control condition were also asked sit quietly, with eyes open, and listen to the motivational speech using personal headphones. Copies of all materials were provided to students to allow for experiencing the Mini-Interventions given to both groups. Note that due to time constraints, a ‘pre-test’ baseline of Stroop performance was not collected. Rather, given the random assignment of students to groups, the differences in post-intervention scores on Stroop Interference were taken to reflect change due to the effects (or not) of mindfulness training. Results Data analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics Package (version 21.

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Prior to running the statistical analyses all data were screened for normality. Analysis of the MAAS survey further showed that there was no difference in trait mindfulness skills for participants in the Mindfulness Meditation Condition (M = 55. 09, SD = 13. 91), compared to the participants in the Control Condition (M = 55. 30, SD = 12. As shown in Figure 2, there was no correlation between Stroop Interference Scores and MAAS scores (r = 0. The five-minute measure of Stroop interference is used to enable the individuals to meditate and clear mind for selective attention. The cognitive part of the brain through training and practice align the colors and make a judgment which infers that Stroop effect is less measured over short-term meditation. The mini-intervention induced attention from the mind for the congruent and the incongruent colors and word selection (Zeidan, Johnson, Diamond, David, & Goolkasian, 2010).

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In the mindfulness, attention participants exhibited improved selective attention while judging on the incongruent and congruent colors and words. Mindfulness was increased for the participants due to the external factors and the tendency by the mind under a controlled environment to showcase receptive attention (Moore, & Malinowski, 2009). Stroop interference was equal to average incongruent reaction mean minus average congruent reaction time. The mini-intervention improved the attention of the participants and therefore the increase in the incongruent calculation of the word appearance in color for the average time. Stroop interference is obtained through the incongruent reaction time for the colors which results to the different measures. Mini-intervention interference condition sets the cognitive mind to record more Stroop interference in the incongruent words and color due to the alertness of the brain to the activity (Jha, Krompinger, & Baime, 2007).

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The participants in the control experiment due to less practice in meditation and mindfulness, showed low average mean of Stroop interference compared to the participants of the research. The participants in the control condition show the there was no Stroop interference on the scores as the mindfulness traits are driven by practice and training and not depended on the individual values. Mindfulness is high for the meditators than the non-meditators and the correlation of the Stroop interference for the congruent and incongruent words and color (Moore, Gruber, Derose, & Malinowski, 2012). The high score for the participants shows meditation induce selective attention in cognitive flexibility. This research was consistent with the findings by Parris (2014) and Douglass and Davidson (2003) in showcasing the Stroop interference effect for the incongruent and congruent words and colors mindfulness interventions.

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The findings of the study were consistent with the hypothesis as the Stroop interference was found within a short period of mindfulness meditation to show no large margin for selective attention. T. , Hopkins, J. , Krietemeyer, J. , & Toney, L. Using self-report assessment methods to explore facets of mindfulness. Does mindfulness training improve cognitive abilities? A systematic review of neuropsychological findings.  Clinical psychology review, 31(3), 449-464. Davidson, D. J. , Zacks, R. , Schuman-Olivier, Z. , Vago, D. R. , & Ott, U. How does mindfulness meditation work? Proposing mechanisms of action from a conceptual and neural perspective. P. , Krompinger, J. , & Baime, M. J. Mindfulness training modifies subsystems of attention. , Lacerda, S. S. , Barreiros, M. A. , Radvany, J. ATTENTION PROCESSES IN MINDFULNESS: THE INFLUENCE OF MINDFULNESS INTERVENTION ON PERFORMING STROOP BASED TASKS.

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