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Short Communication
Zen meditation and access to information in the unconscious
q
Madelijn Strick
a,
⇑
, Tirza H.J. van Noorden
a
, Rients R. Ritskes
c
, Jan R. de Ruiter
b,
⇑
,
Ap Dijksterhuis
a
a
Social Psychology Program, Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, Montessorilaan 3, PO Box 9104, 6500 HE, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
b
Department of Anthropology, Evolutionary Anthropology Research Group, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom
c
6581 CL, Malden, The Netherlands
article info
Article history:
Received 15 August 2011
Available online 28 April 2012
Keywords:
Zen meditation
Unconscious
Remote Associates Test
Subliminal priming
abstract
In two experiments and two different research paradigms, we tested the hypothesis that
Zen meditation increases access to accessible but unconscious information. Zen practitio-
ners who meditated in the lab performed better on the Remote Associate Test (RAT;
Mednick, 1962) than Zen practitioners who did not meditate. In a new, second task, it
was observed that Zen practitioners who meditated used subliminally primed words more
than Zen practitioners who did not meditate. Practical and theoretical implications are
discussed.
Ó2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
‘‘Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish,
you’ve got to go deeper’’
David Lynch
1. Introduction
The capacity of consciousness is small. We can consciously think a myriad of different thoughts, but we can only think
about one thing at a time. We can read and thereby occupy consciousness with a book, but as soon as we inadvertently
switch our mental searchlight onto something else – let’s not forget to get some groceries before the shop closes! – the book
is temporarily ‘‘erased’’ from consciousness.
Conversely, the capacity of the unconscious mind is, presumably, vast. Several different things can be accessible or tem-
porarily primed at the same time (Wegner & Smart, 1997). That is, multiple thoughts can be unconsciously active simulta-
neously, for instance the answer to a question we were asked earlier that day (Yaniv & Meyer, 1987), the solution to a
problem we have been mulling over for a while (Poincaré, 1913), the thought of a cold drink on a hot day (Aarts, Dijksterhuis,
& De Vries, 2001), or an embarrassing memory we try to suppress (Wegner, 1994) can most likely all be accessible, but not
conscious, simultaneously.
Under most (though not all) circumstances, better access to unconscious processes is useful. The opening quote by film-
maker Lynch (2006) represents the notion that better access to the unconscious fosters creativity (see also Bowers, Regehr,
Balthazard, & Parker, 1990; Zhong, Dijksterhuis, & Galinsky, 2008). In addition, goals (and needs and other motives) lead
things that are instrumental for fulfilling these goals to become more accessible or unconsciously activated (Aarts, Custers,
& Holland, 2007; Bargh, Gollwitzer, Lee-Chai, Barndollar, & Trötschl, 2001). This means that better access to the unconscious
1053-8100/$ - see front matter Ó2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.concog.2012.02.010
q
This research was supported by an NWO-VICI Grant (453-05-004) awarded to the last author.
⇑
Corresponding authors. Now at Department of Psychology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands (M. Strick).
E-mail addresses: M.Strick@uu.nl (M. Strick), Jan.deRuiter@durham.ac.uk (J.R. de Ruiter).
Consciousness and Cognition 21 (2012) 1476–1481
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Consciousness and Cognition
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/concog
may, in principle at least, foster goal pursuit. Indeed, the idea that improved access to unconscious, ‘‘inner’’ processes is func-
tional is at the heart of various theories about self-regulation (Brown, Ryan, & Creswell, 2007; Carver & Scheier, 1981; Duval
& Wicklund, 1972).
The capacity to access unconsciously activated information differs between individuals (Crawley, French, & Yesson, 2002).
For instance, research on transliminality (Thalbourne, 2000) – defined as the tendency for psychological material to cross
(trans) the threshold (limen) into or out of consciousness (Thalbourne, 2000, p. 31, see also Crawley et al., 2002, p. 887)–
shows that some people use subliminally primed information more than others.
Here, we aim to investigate whether we can intentionally improve access to the unconscious. One potential way is to en-
gage in Zen-meditation. Zen-meditation, or Zazen, is a technique rooted in Buddhist psychology (Brown et al., 2007). During
Zen-meditation, people usually sit in the lotus position with the goal to regulate their attention. Concretely, people focus
their attention ‘‘inwards’’ to their breathing and count (generally from 1 to 10) each time they exhale. We hypothesize that
Zen-meditation not only leads to diminished attention to the surroundings (as shown by Kubose, 1976; and by Travis, Tecce,
& Guttman, 2000), but also to heightened receptiveness to unconsciously activated or accessible (‘‘inner’’) information. In-
deed, popular notions of meditation sometimes emphasize improved access to our inner mental world as one of the most
important – or even as the single most important – effect of meditation.
However, there is no direct evidence for the hypothesis that meditation fosters access to accessible but unconscious infor-
mation. Recent reviews (Brown et al., 2007; Cahn & Polich, 2006) have listed a number of well-documented positive conse-
quences of meditation that, explicitly or implicitly, are at best suggestive to the idea that meditation improves access to
unconscious information. As alluded to above, we know that meditation increases the ability to concentrate (Kubose,
1976; Travis et al., 2000) but this primarily shows that people become better at ignoring distracting stimuli in the environ-
ment. However, it does not necessarily mean that access to the unconscious is improved. Likewise, meditation decreases
experienced stress load (Davidson, Goleman, & Schwartz, 1976) and leads to a faster decrease in heart rate after exposure
to stressful filmclips (Goleman & Schwartz, 1976), but it is not clear whether improved access to unconscious processes
is (one of the) mediating processes.
Other psychological experiments have demonstrated that meditation (or other ways to increase mindfulness) leads to a
greater concordance between unconscious and conscious reports of self-related attributes (Brown & Ryan, 2003; Trash & El-
liot, 2002), but again, whether increased access to the unconscious is the cause of this greater correspondence is not yet clear.
Koole and colleagues (Koole, Govorun, Cheng, & Gallucci, 2009) recently showed that meditation led to increased congruence
between implicit and explicit self-esteem, but this can have different causes. It is possible that the increased congruence is
caused by people relying more on implicit self-esteem when assessing their own explicit self-esteem, because they have bet-
ter access to their implicit (i.e., unconscious) self-esteem. However, there are other possible explanations. We know that the
correlation between implicit and explicit self-esteem increases when people complete the questionnaire assessing explicit
self-esteem faster (Koole, Dijksterhuis, & Van Knippenberg, 2001) and even after participants are primed with the concept
of honesty (Dijksterhuis, Albers, & Bongers, 2009). It is very well possible that the effects reported by Koole et al. (2009) were
caused by greater honesty among meditators rather than increased access to unconscious processes per se. In sum, a strict test
of this assumed important effect of meditation has not yet been reported. Finally, there is also suggestive evidence from EEG
studies. Aftanas and Golocheikine (2001) measured delta, theta and alpha bands among (relatively experienced) meditators.
They found that meditation led to changes in local theta and lower alpha power as well as to theta coherence changes. These
changes are associated with both a positive emotional state, and, more importantly here, with internalized attention.
We conducted two experiments in which we invited Zen-meditators to participate. Some were asked to meditate imme-
diately prior to the experiment, whereas others were not. Hence, we only investigated short-term effects of meditation. We
made sure that the people who did not meditate also engaged in a relaxing activity just prior to the experiment.
We used two different research paradigms. In both experiments, meditators and non-meditators completed a number of
RAT (Remote Associates Test; Mednick, 1962) trials. In RAT trials, participants are presented with three words and asked to
report an associated fourth word – e.g., the words book,maps, and world are given and participants have to report atlas.In
this paradigm, participants activate (or not) an answer unconsciously, but it has to be accessed before it can be reported con-
sciously. In Experiment 2, we extend the procedure with a second, new paradigm. In this paradigm, participants are sublim-
inally primed with words, after which the probability that these words appear (semi-spontaneously, more information
follows) in consciousness is assessed. Whereas the accessible information in the RAT is derived from an associative process
of the participant herself, in Experiment 2 the source is external. However, in both paradigms the key process – the proba-
bility that accessible information appears in consciousness – is the same.
2. Experiment 1
2.1. Method
2.1.1. Participants
Sixty-three Zen practitioners (30 males and 33 females, age M= 47.81, SD = 11.55) were recruited through a national net-
work of Zen meditation centers (Zen.nl) to participate in the study. Their experience with Zen meditation ranged from
6 months to over 5 years. The Zen practitioners were randomly assigned to either a meditation or a control condition.
M. Strick et al. / Consciousness and Cognition 21 (2012) 1476–1481 1477
2.1.2. Procedure and materials
All participants were tested in the lab in groups of 4–10 participants between 6 and 9 PM. They were randomly assigned
to one of the two conditions. Those assigned to the meditation condition were asked to meditate in a quiet lab room fur-
nished with meditation mats. The meditation sessions lasted for 20 min and were led by a professional Zen master. Those
assigned to the control condition were asked to relax – and not to meditate – for 20 min. The same lab room as in the med-
itation condition was used, however, the meditation mats were replaced with regular chairs and various magazines were
provided for the participants to read (similar to Zeidan, Gordon, Merchant, & Goolkasian, 2010). In both conditions, the par-
ticipants were asked not to talk to each other during the meditation/relaxation.
After having meditated/relaxed, participants were led to individual cubicles for the remainder of the experiment. They
completed the RAT on a computer. The participants were instructed to link three words presented on the screen by a fourth,
associated word. They were asked to type their answer as quickly as possible. Two examples of RAT trials and their solutions
were provided followed by three practice RAT trials that the participants had to answer themselves. The actual task consisted
of three sets of five RAT trials increasing in difficulty, resulting in a total of 15 trials.
After completion of the RAT, participants were asked to answer some questions concerning their Zen meditation experi-
ence and practices. Finally, they were thanked for their participation and debriefed.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Correct RAT answers
Confirming the predictions, the number of correct solutions to the RAT items was higher in the meditation condition
(M= 7.00, SD = 1.98) than in the control condition (M= 5.94, SD = 1.98), F(1, 61) = 5.48, p= .02,
g
2
= .08.
The data clearly supported our hypothesis. Zen meditation improved access to the unconscious. Experiment 2 served mul-
tiple goals. First, we wanted to replicate our findings and to investigate whether increased transfer of accessible information
to consciousness could be found in a different paradigm. Performance on RAT can be divided into two different stages (Zhong
et al., 2008). First, the correct answer needs to be found, and second, the correct answer needs to be transferred to conscious-
ness. Strictly speaking, only the second stage pertains to our hypothesis, as the first stage is indicative of associative process-
ing. It is possible that meditators are outperforming control participants in associative processing rather than in access to the
unconscious and hence, that they benefited mostly during the first stage. Hence, in Experiment 2 meditators and control par-
ticipants completed, in addition to a RAT, a new task that was devised to solely assess transfer of accessible information to
consciousness.
Our new task served another goal. The RAT task is sensitive to motivation, as people who do their best may perform bet-
ter. We wanted to rule out the alternative explanation that participants who meditated were more motivated to do their best
or to please the experimenter or Zen master. Hence, our new task was a task whereby there were no right or wrong answers.
Effects of our manipulation found in this task cannot be attributed to differences in motivation or to sensitivity to experi-
mental demands.
We made two more changes. First, in the RAT we not only recorded participants’ solutions but also their response times.
Second, we altered our instructions regarding meditation. Exit questions in Experiment 1 indicated that 84% of all partici-
pants had meditated on the same day before entering the lab and may have weakened our manipulation. In Experiment
2, participants were asked not to meditate on the day of their participation.
4. Experiment 2
4.1. Method
4.1.1. Participants
Thirty-four Zen practitioners (17 males and 17 females, age M= 48.06, SD = 7.71) were recruited through Zen.nl to par-
ticipate in the study. Their experience with Zen meditation varied from less than 6 months to 10 years. The Zen practitioners
were randomly assigned to either a meditation or a control condition. Exit questions indicated that two participants from the
control condition had meditated beforehand on the same day, even though we had instructed all participants to refrain from
meditating that day. These participants were excluded from the analyses.
4.1.2. Procedure and materials
The procedure of Experiment 2 was similar to Experiment 1 except that the participants completed an additional, new,
task. In this task participants were instructed to answer twenty questions to which three or four answers were possible (e.g.,
‘‘Name one of the four seasons’’). They were asked to give an answer as fast as possible and were given the opportunity to
practice with two examples.
Before each question a fixation cross was presented (1000 ms) at the centre of the screen. The cross was followed by a
premask that appeared for 48 ms (&&&&&&&&&&). Immediately afterwards a prime was displayed subliminally (16 ms).
The primed word was always one of the possible answers (‘‘Spring’’) to the question presented at the end of that trial. A
1478 M. Strick et al. / Consciousness and Cognition 21 (2012) 1476–1481
post-mask (64 ms, identical to the premask) covered the primed word, after which the question appeared on the screen until
the participants had typed the answer that first came to mind. The parameters of the task were based on Radel and Dijkster-
huis (submitted for publication), who established that these parameters indeed led to subliminal stimulus presentations.
5. Results and discussion
5.1. Correct RAT answers
As in Experiment 1, the number of correct solutions to the RAT was higher in the meditation condition (M= 6.82,
SD = 1.55) than in the control condition (M= 4.87, SD = 2.29), F(1, 30) = 8.16, p< .01,
g
2
= .21.
5.2. Response latencies of RAT answers
The difference between conditions in response latencies of the RAT were analyzed using the number of correct RAT an-
swers as covariate. As expected, participants in the meditation condition exhibited shorter response latencies (M= 13.22 s,
SD = 4.93) than did participants in the control condition (M= 16.37 s, SD = 6.72), F(1, 29) = 4.21, p< .05,
g
2
= .13.
5.3. Priming
Across the 20 questions, the average chance of giving a prime-congruent answer (i.e., an answer that matched the prime)
was higher in the meditation condition (M= .35, SD = 0.10) than in the control condition (M= .28, SD = 0.07), F(1, 30) = 4.50,
p= .04,
g
2
= .13. A separate pilot test
1
among participants who were not primed indicated that across the 20 questions, the
average chance of guessing a prime-congruent answer was .30 (SD = .24). The number of prime-congruent answers was mar-
ginally above chance level in the meditation condition, t(16) = 2.01, p= .06, and did not differ from chance level in the control
condition, t(14) = 0.94, p= .36.
5.4. Correlations
We used priming, correct responses on the RAT, and the response latencies on the RAT all as indicators of accessibility of
unconscious processes. If it is true that these measures tap at least partly into the same underlying process, we may find
significant correlations between them. Indeed, a higher number of prime-congruent answers correlated with faster response
latencies on the RAT, R(32) = .42, p= .02. However, the number of prime-congruent answers did not correlate with the
number of correct answers on the RAT, R(32) = .21, p= .25. This could be explained by the fact that correct answers on
the RAT are dependent not only on transfer of accessible information to consciousness, but also to the associative process
aimed at finding the answer in the first place (Zhong et al., 2008) and/or by the relative insensitivity of the RAT measure.
6. General discussion
The findings of our experiments show that a period of 20 min of meditation increases access to the unconscious. As access
to the unconscious is important in many psychological domains, our data are potentially highly relevant in a wide array of
areas. The RAT, the paradigm we used in both experiments, is one of the paradigms most often used to study creativity, and
hence, one may conclude on the basis of our findings that meditation increases creativity. However, the effects shown are
relevant for all psychological domains for which the transfer from accessible information to consciousness is important, such
as decision making and problem-solving. That being said, it is important to realize that we did our experiment only among
experienced meditators and our experimental design only allows conclusions about short-term effects of meditation. Fur-
thermore, it is possible that the participants who meditated were more motivated to perform well than the participants
in the control group. Although enhanced motivation cannot increase performance in the priming task (as there are simply
no right or wrong answers), it may lead participants to be better able to perceive the subliminal stimuli. More experiments
with other paradigms and other groups of participants should shed further light on the generalizability and underlying pro-
cesses of the effects.
It is tempting to speculate about a central common psychological mechanism underlying the many different effects of
meditation. The fact that meditation improves access to the unconscious may hint at a related, but broader process that
could be the driving force behind other salutary effects of meditation. Recently, various researchers have emphasized the
distinction between attention and consciousness (Dehaene, Changeux, Naccache, Sackur, & Sergent, 2006; Dijksterhuis &
Aarts, 2010; Koch & Tsuchiya, 2007). Whereas attention is best seen as the degree to which our brain processes a stimulus
(leading this stimulus to be more or less accessible), consciousness is the subjective experience of a stimulus. In daily life,
attention and consciousness often go together in that things we pay attention to are more likely to enter consciousness.
However, theoretically they are distinct and indeed, attention and consciousness can be dissociated when we pay attention
to things that do not appear in consciousness (such as ‘‘hidden’’ concerns and stressors) and when we consciously think
about something we hardly pay attention to (such as fleeting daydreams).
M. Strick et al. / Consciousness and Cognition 21 (2012) 1476–1481 1479
It is consistent with a wide array of findings to assume that the reason meditation temporarily changes several psycho-
logical processes is that it leads to a greater correspondence between attention and the contents of consciousness. Further
research may reveal the (in)validity of this idea.
Appendix A
Questions and answer alternatives used in priming task, Experiment 2. Chance levels according to pilot study are between
brackets.
Primed
answer
Alternative 1 Alternative 2 Alternative 3
Name one of the four seasons. Spring (.42) Winter (.11) Summer (.33) Fall (.14)
Name one of the three (Dutch) articles. Het (.08) De (.87) Een (.05)
Name one of the three medals (metals). Silver (.03) Gold (.91) Bronze (.06)
Name one of the three colors of the Dutch flag. Blue (.22) Red (.70) White (.08)
Name one of the four most common colors of a
paprika.
Red (.78) Orange (.05) Green (.16) Yellow (.00)
Name one of the four even numbers below the
number 10.
Six (.06) Two (.36) Four (.19) Eight (.39)
Name one of the three types of (basic) cutlery. Fork (.38) Knife (.32) Spoon (.30)
Name one of the three nephews of Donald Duck
(in the Netherlands).
Kwek (.11) Kwik (.77) Kwak (.11)
Name one of the four basic kinds of tastes. Sweet (.50) Salty (.22) Sour (.11) Bitter (.17)
Name one of the four parts of the day. Morning (.81) Afternoon (.14) Evening (.03) Night (.03)
Name one of the three types of wine (color). White (.11) Red (.76) Rose (.14)
Name one of the four elements. Fire (.24) Earth (.29) Wind (.12) Water (.35)
Name one of the three countries of the Benelux. Belgium (.57) The Netherlands
(.38)
Luxembourg
(.05)
Name one of the four (natural) hair colors. Brown (.19) Black (.22) Blond (.53) Red (.06)
Name one of the three valid identification
documents.
Driver’s license
(.11)
Passport (.70) ID card (.19)
Name one of the three colors of the German
flag.
Red (.08) Black (.58) Yellow (.33)
Name one of the four members of The Beatles. John Lennon
(.56)
Paul McCartney
(.03)
Ringo Starr
(.31)
George Harrison
(.11)
Name one of the three primary colors. Yellow (.17) Red (.60) Blue (.23)
Name one of the three cardinal directions. East (.46) North (.24) South (.27) West (.03)
Name one of the three big European rivers
flowing
through the Netherlands.
Waal (.14) Rijn (.78) Maas (.08)
Average chance level of primed answers .30
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