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The effects of mindfulness meditation training on multitasking in a high-stress information environment
Abstract and Figures
We describe an experiment to determine the effects of meditation training on the multitasking behavior of knowledge workers. Three groups each of 12-15 human resources personnel were tested: (1) those who underwent an 8-week training course on mindfulness-based meditation, (2) those who endured a wait period, were tested, and then underwent the same 8-week training, and (3) those who had 8-weeks of training in body relaxation. We found that only those trained in meditation stayed on tasks longer and made fewer task switches, as well as reporting less negative emotion after task performance, as compared with the other two groups. In addition, both the meditation and the relaxation groups showed improved memory for the tasks they performed.
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... Based on the above arguments, the following hypotheses are framed: Previous studies have conclusively shown that technostress can significantly undermine an employee's performance when utilizing IT for work tasks (Chen & Muthitacharoen, 2016). Excessive multitasking, alongside interruptions, significantly affect the effectiveness of an individual within work settings (Levy et al., 2012;Tarafdar et al., 2010). Moreover, employees who resist learning new technologies encounter numerous errors and failures with the system and experience frustration, thus leading to reduced performance (Tarafdar et al., 2010). ...
... A more mindful individual can cope more effectively with stressful situations by choosing fewer avoidance strategies and more adaptive ways of coping (Weinstein et al., 2009). Previous studies have shown that mindfulness can mitigate the negative consequences arising from information overload (Wolf et al., 2011) and multitasking (Levy et al., 2012) thus decreasing techno overload. Moreover, by thoughtfully considering how to react to IT interruptions, such as emails arising outside of work settings, a more mindful individual is more likely to appraise these situations as less threatening and respond more objectively thus decreasing the impact of techno invasion (Alberts & Hülsheger, 2015;Schultz et al., 2015). ...
IT offers significant benefits both to individuals and organisations, such as during the Covid-19 pandemic where technology played a primary role in aiding remote working environments; however, IT use comes with consequences such as ‘technostress’ – stress arising from extended use of technology. Addressing the paucity of research related to this topic, in this study, we examine the role of mindfulness and IT mindfulness to both mitigate the impact of technostress and alleviate its negative consequences; revealing that mindfulness can reduce technostress and increase job satisfaction, while IT mindfulness can enhance user satisfaction and improve task performance. Moreover, our work sheds light on the under-researched relationship between mindfulness and IT mindfulness; showing that the latter has a stronger influence on IT related outcomes; revealing the valuable role of mindfulness and IT mindfulness in the workplace and offering important implications to theory and practice.
... Despite this variability, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of workplace MBIs (Manotas et al. 2014;van Berkel et al. 2014;Shapiro et al. 2005;Aikens et al. 2014;Wolever et al. 2012;Davidson et al. 2004;Allexandre et al. 2016;Klatt et al. 2009;Malarkey et al. 2013;Levy et al. 2012) indicate a reduction in perceived stress comparable with non-work MBIs (Khoury et al. 2015;Chiesa and Serretti 2009) and with other workplace stress management interventions (Bhui et al. 2012). Four of the cited RCTs explored outcomes for lowdose MBIs: from 6 class hours and 10 homework hours over 6 weeks (PSS d = 0.73, Mindfulness d = 0.56) (Klatt et al. 2009); 7 class hours with 10.8 homework hours over 7 weeks (global effect d = 0.67) (Aikens et al. 2014); 8 class hours with 11 homework hours over 4 weeks (PSS d = 0.69, mindfulness d = 0.07) (Manotas et al. 2014); and 8 class hours with 18.7 homework hours over 8 weeks (PSS p = ns, mindfulness d = 0.16) (Malarkey et al. 2013). ...
... Randomised n=135 been a disincentive for ongoing participation. Acknowledging this level of attrition is not ideal; it is consistent with that reported for behavioral intervention studies (Newby et al. 2015) and the other workplace MBI RCTs cited in this paper, where the lowest rates of completion were 68% (with active control) (Levy et al. 2012) and 65% (wait list control) (Allexandre et al. 2016). ...
Background:
Workplace-based mindfulness programs have good evidence for improving employee stress and mental health outcomes, but less is known about their effects on productivity and citizenship behaviors. Most of the available evidence is derived from studies of mindfulness programs that use class-based approaches. Mindfulness apps can increase access to training, but whether self-directed app use is sufficient to realize benefits equivalent to class-based mindfulness programs is unknown.
Objective:
We assessed the effectiveness of a mindfulness app, both with and without supporting classes, for reducing employees' perceived stress. Changes in mindfulness, mental health, quality of life, perceptions of job demand, control and support, productivity indicators, organizational citizenship, and mindful behaviors at work were also investigated.
Methods:
Tasmanian State Service employees were invited by the Tasmanian Training Consortium to a 3-arm randomized controlled trial investigating the effects of a mindfulness app on stress. The app used in the Smiling Mind Workplace Program formed the basis of the intervention. The app includes lessons, activities, and guided meditations, and is supported by 4 instructional emails delivered over 8 weeks. Engagement with the app for 10-20 minutes, 5 days a week, was recommended. Reported data were collected at baseline (time point 0), 3 months from baseline (time point 1 [T1]), and at 6-month follow-up (time point 2). At time point 0, participants could nominate a work-based observer to answer surveys about participants' behaviors. Eligible participants (n=211) were randomly assigned to self-guided app use plus four 1-hour classes (app+classes: 70/211, 33.2%), self-guided app use (app-only: 71/211, 33.6%), or waitlist control (WLC; 70/211, 33.2%). Linear mixed effects models were used to assess changes in the active groups compared with the WLC at T1 and for a head-to-head comparison of the app+classes and app-only groups at follow-up.
Results:
App use time was considerably lower than recommended (app+classes: 120/343 minutes; app-only: 45/343 minutes). Compared with the WLC at T1, no significant change in perceived stress was observed in either active group. However, the app+classes group reported lower psychological distress (β=-1.77, SE 0.75; P=.02; Cohen d=-0.21) and higher mindfulness (β=.31, SE 0.12; P=.01; Cohen d=0.19). These effects were retained in the app+classes group at 6 months. No significant changes were observed for the app-only group or for other outcomes. There were no significant changes in observer measures at T1, but by time point 2, the app+classes participants were more noticeably mindful and altruistic at work than app-only participants.
Conclusions:
Including classes in the training protocol appears to have motivated engagement and led to benefits, whereas self-guided app use did not realize any significant results. Effect sizes were smaller and less consistent than meta-estimates for class-based mindfulness training.
Trial registration:
Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Register ACTRN12617001386325; https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=372942&isReview.
... Therefore, students can become more resilient in the face of challenges associated with the transitional period of university study (Shapiro et al., 2011). Furthermore, practicing mindfulness improves one's ability to concentrate and shift one's attention (Jha et al., 2007;Semple, 2010), which could enhance students' ability to process large amounts of information while decreasing instances of burnout and anxiety from such work (Levy et al., 2012). Particularly, students who practiced mindfulness exhibited reduced levels of depression and anxiety (Falsafi, 2016;Gallego et al., 2015;Song & Lindquist, 2015). ...
According to Russian researchers, university studies is among the most stressful activities for a person. First-year university students are particularly vulnerable to stress. The use of mindfulness-based programs to help students reduce and manage stress is gaining popularity around the world. Previous research has shown that such programs can improve the psychological well-being of students by reducing levels of anxiety and depression. In addition, students in helping majors, such as psychology students, would greatly benefit from mastering the skills of managing stress, as anxiety and stress are pertinent to their future profession. This pilot case study assesses the effectiveness of a brief mindfulness training aimed at improving Russian students’ mental and physical health. The participants were 83 first-year undergraduate students from the Psychology Department of the Ural Federal University named after B.N. Yeltsin. Data collection was completed in November 2019. A non-randomized controlled trial was conducted using a brief mindfulness training. The results show that the participants in the experimental group demonstrated significantly lower levels of depression (η2 = .07, p = .00) and significantly higher levels of subjective happiness (η2 = .02, p = .02) than participants in the control group. Also, the participants in the experimental group showed marginally significant lower levels of anxiety (η2 = .02, p = .06). Frequent mindfulness meditation practice and the study of theoretical materials were associated with higher rates of psychological well-being of students. The findings suggest that mindfulness training may be an effective tool in addressing psychological challenges experienced by first-year students of the Psychology Department of Ural Federal University.
... Policymakers should consider investing in the development of cognitive endurance, possibly during early ages when neuroplasticity is higher. While research in this area is still in its infancy, some examples of protocols that build cognitive endurance include mindfulness meditation (Levy et al., 2012;Goleman and Davidson, 2017), noninvasive brain stimulation (Rubia, 2018), and the restriction of smartphones in learning environments (Thornton et al., 2014). 31 An important caveat is the lack of exogenous variation in cognitive endurance in my analysis. ...
Cognitive endurance -- the ability to sustain performance on a cognitively-demanding task over time -- is thought to be a crucial productivity determinant. However, a lack of data on this variable has limited researchers' ability to understand its role for success in college and the labor market. This paper uses college-admission-exam records from 15 million Brazilian high school students to measure cognitive endurance based on changes in performance throughout the exam. By exploiting exogenous variation in the order of exam questions, I show that students are 7.1 percentage points more likely to correctly answer a given question when it appears at the beginning of the day versus the end (relative to a sample mean of 34.3%). I develop a method to decompose test scores into fatigue-adjusted ability and cognitive endurance. I then merge these measures into a higher-education census and the earnings records of the universe of Brazilian formal-sector workers to quantify the association between endurance and long-run outcomes. I find that cognitive endurance has a statistically and economically significant wage return. Controlling for fatigue-adjusted ability and other student characteristics, a one-standard-deviation higher endurance predicts a 5.4% wage increase. This wage return to endurance is sizable, equivalent to a third of the wage return to ability. I also document positive associations between endurance and college attendance, college quality, college graduation, firm quality, and other outcomes. Finally, I show how systematic differences in endurance across students interact with the exam design to determine the sorting of students to colleges. I discuss the implications of these findings for the use of cognitive assessments for talent selection and investments in interventions that build cognitive endurance.
... For instance, if a given intervention is expected to affect the cognitive ability (e.g. multitasking) of the participants, then it is prudent to recruit participants for whom multitasking forms an important part of their work or life [18,38]. This criticism, however, stems from the belief that meditation may affect a specific cognitive ability. ...
Yoga and meditation-based interventions have been extensively utilized in the field of contemporary complementary and alternative medicine for various physical and mental health conditions. Ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has rekindled the interest of researchers in yoga and meditation for its preventive and therapeutic utilities. However, the available literature in this area has several methodological concerns, limiting formers’ clinical utility. A comprehensive literature on this topic would stimulate researchers and guide them to conduct research on this topic with robust methodologies. The current review highlights the methodological issues with the yoga and meditation-based Research (henceforth, MBR), discusses some of the contentious issues, and provides future directions. The PubMed, Medline, and google scholar databases were searched to screen records dealing with the methodological issues on MBR. The search yielded 299 records, upon screening, only 24 articles were found suitable for the current study. Common methodological issues with MBR: lack of the consensus definitions of the yoga and meditations, interventions lacking theoretical framework of meditation; inadequate description of the study design; difficulty with participants recruitment, setting up the control groups, and blinding; difficulty in assessing the baseline characteristics of the participants, and validity issues with the outcome measures. A few research, however, have also highlighted the potential measures to overcome these methodological challenges. Yoga and meditation-based interventions are promising for several health conditions. However, literature suffers from considerable methodological issues, thus, limiting its utility in modern clinical practice. The study findings can stimulate and guide future research on this topic.
... Besides its theoretical relevance, our research also offers a series of practical implications. First, as poor communication may frustrate employee needs (Van Quaquebeke & Felps, 2016), and miscommunication is, at its best, inefficient, LAC seems to be a particularly effective resource for leaders to enhance single-tasking (i.e., focusing on one thing) (Levy et al., 2012), and reduce miscommunication due to less distractedness. Moreover, through increasing adequate employee information, LAC may improve leader decision making (Karelaia & Reb, 2015), for instance via altering job demands and job resources based on employee needs (Schaufeli, 2015). ...
Effective communication is a foundational leadership skill. Many leadership theories implicitly assume communication skills, without investigating them behaviorally. To be able to research leader communication as a building block of effective leader behavior, we propose a new concept, i.e., leader attentive communication which refers to "an open-minded, attentive demeanor while in a conversation with an employee". Instead of focusing on the content or form of the communication, we propose to study the communication skills of the leader from the viewpoint of the employee. In this article, we both validate a questionnaire and test LAC's influence on employee wellbeing in four different studies. We use information from 1,320 employees and their leaders, in 422 teams, in 3 different datasets. The result is a 10-item questionnaire with 2 dimensions consisting of general attention (towards the employee) and attention to non-verbal cues. We also find that LAC is associated with work engagement, psychological needs and Kahn's conditions for work engagement. With this questionnaire , we contribute to calls for a more behavioral, detailed view on leader communication behavior.
The learner is facing increasing uncertainty from environmental, social, and economic shifts, including everything from escalating natural disasters to pandemics, conflict, and societal tensions (Karalis and Raikou, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences 10:479–493, 2020; Schwartzman, Communication Education 69:502–517, 2020). It is of importance and urgency then, to empower learners in such a way that they can imagine and become actors to make the diverse impacts required.
Very rapid and transforming changes are happening in all fields, thanks to the digital revolution in technology. This has created worldwide challenges as well as opportunities. However, in addition to technical knowledge and efficiency, psychological qualities like well-being, interpersonal skills, self-confidence, remain critically important. This empirical study attempts to measure the effect on employees’ behavior, personality and psychological well-being by using Vipassana meditation as an intervention. For this purpose, 240 meditator and non-meditator employees were administered an instrument comprising of a psychological well-being scale and a specially designed behavior measure scale to study how mindfulness intervention affects personality and behavior. The data was analyzed using SPSS Ver. 20.0. The results indicated higher values for meditator employees on nine measures of behavior, personality and well-being. These scores indicated that they enjoyed higher self-confidence, interpersonal skills, equanimity, empathy, engagement and growth leading to better work ethic, teamwork and growth. It was not possible to adopt a “Before and After” study design due to the limitation of time available for completion of the study. The behavioral and personality changes that take place due to VM practice are subjective. In the future, it will be interesting to study these subjective changes in meditators by using a long-term study spanning over a few years.KeywordsBehaviorEmployeesPersonalityPsychological well-beingVipassana meditation
http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112158/1/sosenko.pdf
Disturbed relationships between human beings lead to an increase of neurotic diseases. Psychotherapy in a higher degree deals with these problems. In a comparison the autogenic training and the progressive relaxation as two therapy methods are tested for their suitability for the therapy of neurosis. The two methods are found suitable in form of a combination treatment to influence positively the personality of the patient for improving a disturbed person-environment-relationship.
In recent studies of the structure of affect, positive and negative affect have consistently emerged as two dominant and relatively independent dimensions. A number of mood scales have been created to measure these factors; however, many existing measures are inadequate, showing low reliability or poor convergent or discriminant validity. To fill the need for reliable and valid Positive Affect and Negative Affect scales that are also brief and easy to administer, we developed two 10-item mood scales that comprise the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). The scales are shown to be highly internally consistent, largely uncorrelated, and stable at appropriate levels over a 2-month time period. Normative data and factorial and external evidence of convergent and discriminant validity for the scales are also presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Current approaches to accessible computing share a common goal of making technology accessible to users with disabilities. Perhaps because of this goal, they may also share a tendency to centralize disability rather than ability. We present a refinement to these approaches called ability-based design that consists of focusing on ability throughout the design process in an effort to create systems that leverage the full range of human potential. Just as user-centered design shifted the focus of interactive system design from systems to users, ability-based design attempts to shift the focus of accessible design from disability to ability. Although prior approaches to accessible computing may consider users’ abilities to some extent, ability-based design makes ability its central focus. We offer seven ability-based design principles and describe the projects that inspired their formulation. We also present a research agenda for ability-based design.
Author's Note: This article benefited greatly from the many improvements in organization, expression, and content made by Rachel Kaplan, and the many suggestions concerning consistency, clarity, and accuracy made by Terry Hartig. Thanks also to the SESAME group for providing a supportive environment for exploring many of the themes discussed here. The project was funded, in part, by USDA Forest Service, North Central Experiment Station, Urban Forestry Unit Co-operative Agreements. Abstract An analysis of the underlying similarities between the Eastern meditation tradition and attention restoration theory (ART) provides a basis for an expanded framework for studying directed attention. The focus of the analysis is the active role the individual can play in the preservation and recovery of the directed attention capacity. Two complementary strategies are presented which can help individuals more effectively manage their attentional resource. One strategy involves avoiding unnecessary costs in terms of expenditure of directed attention. The other involves enhancing the effect of restorative opportunities. Both strategies are hypothesized to be more effective if one gains generic knowledge, self knowledge and specific skills. The interplay between a more active form of mental involvement and the more passive approach of meditation appear to have far-reaching ramifications for managing directed attention. Research on mental restoration has focused on the role of the environment, and especially the natural environment. Such settings have been shown to reduce both stress and directed attention fatigue (DAF) (Hartig & Evans, 1993). Far less emphasis, however, has been placed on the possibility of active participation by the individual in need of recovery. A major purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of this mostly neglected component of the restorative process.