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EXPLORING THE EFFECTS OF MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON
TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
EITAN SCHER
A Thesis submitted to
The Department of Psychology
Rutgers University
Written under the direction of
Professor David Wilder, PhD
Of the Department of Psychology
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, New Jersey
April 15, 2019
MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
Abstract
This thesis examined the role of meditation and self-awareness on judgments of
time duration. Drawing from research in the areas of meditation and self-awareness, it
was hypothesized that self-focused (body focused) meditation would increase perceived
time duration. Employing a 2 (meditation/audiobook) x 2 (bodily focus/narrative focus)
design, college subjects either meditated while focusing on themselves (bodily focus) or
externally (narrative focus) or did not meditate (audiobook) and were either made self-
focused or not. The time devoted to these tasks was held constant across conditions.
Subjects completed a set of time estimation tasks and estimated the amount of time they
spent listening to the recording. They also completed measures that assessed general
levels of mindfulness and self-awareness. Results showed that meditation, regardless of
whether bodily or narratively focused, caused subjects to make shorter judgements of
time.
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MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
Acknowledgements
I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to Dr. David Wilder for the
guidance, wisdom, resources and support needed to complete this project. I was honored
when he extended himself and offered to do work with me on a senior thesis; this year of
research, learning and growth has been a privilege that I would not have been able to
experience without his support. Working with Dr. Wilder has inspired me in more ways
than I could have ever imagined, and I know he will continue to be source of guidance as
I pursue a career in research. I also want to thank the lab coordinator Thomas Cuthbert, as
well as my lab partners Meged, Isaac and Todd, who served as research assistants for my
study. This project would never have gotten completed without their help. I want to thank
my parents for supporting me my whole life, but especially throughout my time in
university. The guidance of my older brothers was invaluable; Eli, who was conducting
research and getting published while I was still studying for my Bar Mitzvah as well as
Avi, who was the first person to ever tell me I should meditate, long before I had any
interest in pursuing research. Lastly, I must thank all of the friends, family and mentors
that I have not yet named. My time at Rutgers, in Israel and frankly my entire life have all
been incredible journeys that I would not have been able to do alone. Thank you for being
a source of inspiration on this endeavor.
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MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
Introduction
Time Perception
The experience and perception of time has long been a topic of study to not just
theologians and philosophers, but neuroscientists, psychologists and biologists alike.
Advancements in neuroscientific technologies like fMRI have allowed us to gain a much
better understanding of the brain components associated with different time mechanisms.
For example, Rao, Mayer & Harrington used event-related fMRI to analyze the activation
of various brain regions over the course various time-related activities and found that
different regions were activated depending on the type of timing (Rao, Mayer, &
Harrington, 2001). These findings were later supported by Warren H. Meck’s work on
interval timing. In his 2004 paper, he detailed the many examples of people with
psychiatric conditions having impaired or modified temporal perception. Meck listed the
disruption of normal functioning of the frontal cortex, hippocampus, basal ganglia, and
cerebellum as factors that can affect interval timing (Meck, 2004). Building on the idea of
the “internal clock,” he concluded that the aforementioned clock is dependent on the
multiple, integrative neurological systems (Hinton & Meck, 1997). This supported the
findings of Rao et al. and provide a basis for the claims of Vago & Silbersweig (2012)
that will be discussed later.
Self-transcendent experiences (STEs), which include states of mindfulness, flow,
self-transcendent positive emotions, awe, peak experiences and lastly mystical
experiences, are states of consciousness that are marked by decreased self-salience and
increased perceived connectedness with the world and others. They profoundly modify
standard consciousness and influence the senses of time, space and mind perception
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MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
(Yaden, Haidt, Hood, Vago, & Newberg, 2017). In an experiment that induced awe
among participants, those in the experimental condition perceived time as being “more
plentiful” than in the control (Rudd et al., 2012). Religious, spiritual or mystical
experiences (RSMEs) are often reported as positive and even transformative experiences
that can be occasioned through a variety of different mechanisms. RSMEs can occur
spontaneously, through practices like meditation or prayer, religious rituals and through
the use of psychoactive substances known as psychedelics, or hallucinogens. These
include substances such as lysergic acid diethylamide, mescaline, N,N-
Dimethyltryptamine, and psilocybin. Regardless of the source, powerful mystical
experiences have been shown to emphasize feelings of “transcendence” of time (Yaden et
al., 2016).
Mindfulness Meditation
Of the various forms of self-transcendent and RSMEs, meditation has received the
most attention in research and the popular press. Though it has a long tradition in
Buddhist practice, there has been a massive spike in interest in “mindfulness” practice in
the general public, media and research community since the early 2000s (Figure 1, page
25; Van Dam et al., 2017). Originating from the Pali word sati, it is defined as having
awareness, attention, and remembering (Bodhi, 2000). Mindfulness meditation
encourages practitioners to focus on “moment-by-moment awareness” (Germer et al.,
2005). While there is a litany of literature discussing the traditional and philosophical
dimensions of mindfulness practice, it is a relatively recent topic of interest among
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MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
researchers. The most well-known of empirically backed mindfulness programs is
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR; Kabat-Zinn, 1990).
Designed by Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1979, MBSR has been used in a variety of clinical
and health settings, with studies showing efficacy in treatment of chronic pain intensity
(Bakhshani et al., 2015), decreased negative emotion reactivity and increased emotion
regulation (Goldin and Gross, 2010) as well as generally enhanced quality of life and
decreased stress symptoms (Carlson et al., 2007). Kabat-Zinn became a student of Zen
Buddhism while working on his Ph.D. in molecular biology at MIT. He adapted
traditional Buddhist teachings on mindfulness to fit into a secular, structured program that
he originally called the “Stress Reduction and Relaxation Program” before renaming it
“Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction.” The program removed all theological and
metaphysical connotations from the teachings, instead framing it in a scientific context
(Wilson, 2014). Kabat-Zinn defined mindfulness as “the awareness that arises from
paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally” (Purser,
2015). By training in mindfulness skills and cultivating present moment awareness,
practitioners are able to learn how to quiet the mind, reduce rumination and enhance
coping. MBSR groups are usually made up of up to 20 participants complete an eight,
two-hour long weekly sessions and a one-day retreat that consists of six hours of
mindfulness exercises between sessions six and seven. Participants are given home
assignments to complete 45 minutes of mindfulness practice daily throughout the
duration of the program and are encouraged to continue the practices and integrate them
into their lives (Will et al., 2015).
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MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
Despite the success of programs like MBSR, the proliferation of writing on
mindfulness and its roots in the more abstract concepts of Buddhist philosophy have
made the concept difficult to strictly define and measure. Popular press’ dissemination of
the virtues of mindfulness practice has led to some backlash from those in the general and
scientific community. While neuroimaging studies have begun to illustrate the
physiological mechanisms and areas that mediate the reported effects of meditation and
mindfulness practice, it is still not completely clear. The methodological rigor of the
research has been called into question, due to the minimal amounts of corresponding
longitudinal control studies. Most researchers in the field are enthusiastic meditators
themselves, which allows for experimenter bias to be mediating factor (Tang, Hölzel, &
Posner, 2015). The experimenter-expectancy effect should also be considered (Colman,
2009). Psychologist Robert Rosenthal showed the power of this effect in a series of
studies carried out in the 1960s by differentiating what effects he told psychology
students to expect from experiments on rats (Rosenthal, 1966). If mindfulness practice
has practical or clinical applicability, it is important to know if the effects can be reliably
occasioned without the favorable conditions set up.
Mindfulness and meditation researchers themselves are not ignorant to the
challenges levied against their field. In a paper titled Mind the Hype: A Critical
Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation,
mindfulness researchers from all across the globe attempted to address some of the
aforementioned challenges and weed out poor research practices that might hold back
future progress (Van Dam et al., 2017). They highlight the semantic ambiguity in the term
“mindfulness,” insufficient construct validity, difficulties in operationalizing and
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MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
measuring mindfulness and misperception of its efficacy as some of the key challenges
Still, researchers find themselves having to consistently address the misconceptions
others make about their findings. In an interview with Dan Harris of the 10% Happier
podcast, Dr. David Vago, research director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine
at Vanderbilt University and one of the authors of the paper, addressed some of the
misconceptions that the popular press took from their findings. “I didn’t say the science is
shoddy, the science is still very good. But it is young, and we should be cautious in how
we interpret it… there’s a lot of confusion about how we understand, how we
operationalize the word. It’s used in many different ways and we often don’t
contextualize it appropriately” (Harris, 2017). Contextualizing mindfulness and the
methods of measuring it are key to advancing research in the field.
Mind the Hype concludes that key goals among those studying these mental
processes should be to improve the rigor of these studies, the accuracy of media publicity
and clarify public misunderstanding. The four methods they propose to go about this is
through: first, clarifying the semantic ambiguities from the various possible meanings of
the term “mindfulness.” Second, learn lessons from the ongoing “replication crisis” in
psychology through practices like pregistering experiments and open-science
replications. Third, seek more uniformity and better control in mindfulness-based
interventions. Fourth, neuroimaging findings must be reported modestly, and their
practical significance must be rigorously vetted before grand claims of their value can be
made (Van Dam et al., 2017).
Guided by Van Dam and colleagues, we will define the mindfulness state as one
of “psychological freedom that occurs when attention remains quiet and limber, without
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MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
attachment to any particular point of view,” (Martin, 1997) so that it can afford the
practitioner “a receptive attention to and awareness of present events and experience”
(Brown & Ryan, 2003).
Mindfulness and Time
Mindfulness meditators have a longer duration of subjective nowness than
nonexperts/nonmeditators (Sauer et al., 2012). In the Sauer et al. study, participants were
tasked with pressing a button on a computer when they saw a change in an image of a
Necker Cube. Individual mindfulness levels were significantly correlated with duration of
perceiving of one of the two cubes. In other words, to those who scored higher on the
measures of mindfulness, the present, i.e. the moment that the cube was on the screen,
was perceived as longer. Results supported the hypothesis of a longer duration of
subjective nowness among those who are more mindful (Sauer et al., 2012). Similarly,
Berkovich-Ohana, Glicksohn, & Goldstein reported that those practicing mindfulness
meditation made longer judgments of temporal duration than control subjects (2012).
Kramer, Weger, and Sharma directly compared duration estimates between
subjects who meditated and a control group (2013). They used a temporal bisection task
for time judgments. The task had two phases: a training phase and a testing phase. In the
training phase, participants were shown a short standard stimulus (S) of 400 ms duration
and a long one (L) that lasted 1600 ms. The stimuli were colored squares or circles.
Participants were then randomly shown S and L stimuli and made “S” or “L” judgments.
Training was completed when they made eight consecutive accurate judgments. The
number of stimuli increased in the testing phase to seven, with durations of 400, 600,
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MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
800, 1000, 1200, 1400, and 1600 ms. The participants then had to classify each stimulus
as either “short” (S) or “long” (L). This yielded a baseline accuracy score. Then subjects
were assigned to either a meditation or audiobook (control) condition. The meditation
group listened to a “mindfulness of body and breath” exercise that was eight minutes long
(Williams, Penman, & Kabat-Zinn, 2011). The audiobook book group listened to a
recording of an excerpt from The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien of the same length (Shaw,
2005). They then completed the bisection task again (Kramer et al., 2013). Results
indicated that subjects in the meditation condition were more likely to classify stimulus
durations as long (L) than were subjects in the audiobook (control) condition after
listening to their respective recordings. Thus, time appeared to slow down for the
meditators. Because mindfulness induced by meditation is a conscious state, its effects
may well be related to another conscious state that turns attention inward – that of self-
awareness.
Self-Awareness
Psychology has long been enamored with defining and understanding the self
(James, 1890; Cooley, 1902; Mead, 1934), but empirical analyses of self-awareness were
kickstarted by Shelly Duval and Robert Wicklund with their book A Theory of Objective
Self-Awareness. They posited that attention can be focused outwards or inwards: "When
attention is directed inward and the individual's consciousness is focused on himself, he
is the object of his own consciousness--hence 'objective' self awareness" (Duval &
Wicklund, 1972, p. 2) Merely manipulating focus of attention (inward or outward) has
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MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
been shown to affect a variety of judgments including attributions of causality (Duval &
Wicklund, 1973), perspective taking, and empathy (Geracy, Day, Casey & Mohr, 2017).
In Self-awareness, Self-regulation, and Self-transcendence (S-ART): A
Framework for Understanding the Neurobiological Mechanisms of Mindfulness,
aforementioned mindfulness researcher David R. Vago and his colleague David A.
Silbersweig (2012) describe a theory of brain function that posits that that the regions of
the lateral cerebellum, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior medial prefrontal cortex,
frontopolar cortex, anterior inferior parietal lobe, temporoparietal junction and the
ventrolateral prefrontal cortex collectively make up an integrative control network called
the fronto-parietal control network (FPCN). They argue that that these brain regions are
linked to S-ART, noting that “advanced meditators show resistance to age-related decline
in FPCN and self-specifying brain areas” (Vago & Silbersweig, 2012). “Self-specifying”
refers to areas of the brain that are associated with what they refer to as the “experiential
enactive self (EES)” and the “experiential phenomenological self (EPS).” The EES refers
to non-conscious sensory-affective motor processing whereas the EPS refers to the
“agentic, self-as-subject acting as awareness in the present moment” (Vago &
Silbersweig, 2012). This suggests an integrative approach for the concept of self-
awareness (frequently called meta-awareness by Vago & Silbersweig).
Self-Awareness and Time
Closely associated with self-awareness (Vago & Silbersweig, 2012) is “self-
regulation” (Vohs and Schmeichel, 2003). Processes typically encompassed in self-
regulation include the modification of an undesired response; the replacement of an
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MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
undesired response with a desired response; and most forms of inhibition, in which the
occurrence of a response is repressed” (Vohs and Schmeichel, 2003). Following a self-
regulatory resource model (which views the ability to control impulses and desires as a
generalized yet limited resource; Bauemeister & Heatherton, 1996), Vohs and Schmeichel
argued that when self-regulating their behavior, people are likely to be attuned to the time
spent using said resource. In other words, the act of self-regulation is closely associated
with the passage of time.
They conducted four studies to empirically test their claims. Subjects were tasked
with giving time estimates based on their time spent in participating in a given task, and
depending on the condition, were asked to engage in some form of self-regulatory
behavior. For example, when required to exert effort by exaggerating or suppressing
emotions, subjects estimated that a film clip they were watching was longer than when
they were not required to engage in self-regulation while viewing the clip. Ultimately,
Vohs and Schmeichel were able to conclude that self-regulation caused a sensation of an
“extended now,” altering a person’s perception of time (Vohs and Schmeichel, 2003).
Thesis Experiment
Past research has shown that mindfulness manipulations (focused on “body and
breath”) have been shown to increase estimations of time duration (Kramer et al., 2013).
They have also been shown to increase a subject’s self-awareness (Vago & Silbersweig,
2012). We conducted this experiment to compare the effects of manipulating both the
type of meditation and the focus of awareness on time judgments.
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Employing a 2 (recording type: meditation/audiobook) x 2 (focus of attention:
bodily focus/narrative focus) design, college subjects either meditated while focusing on
themselves (bodily focus) or externally (narrative focus) or did not meditate (listened to
an audiobook) while either self-focused or focused on the narrative. The time devoted to
these tasks was held constant across conditions. Subjects completed a set of time
estimation tasks and estimated the amount of time they spent listening to the recordings.
They also completed measures that assessed general levels of mindfulness and self-
awareness.
Hypotheses
Based on previous work, it was hypothesized that bodily focused mindfulness
meditation will result in longer temporal judgements in comparison to a non-meditation
control (audiobook; Kramer et al., 2013). A second hypothesis was that increased self-
awareness in general (Meditation/Bodily Focus and Audiobook/Bodily Focus) would
increase duration relative to an Audiobook/Narrative control condition. The purpose of
the Meditation/Narrative condition was to see if the effects of meditation shown in
Kramer et al.’s study were unique to a bodily focused meditation or were an effect of
meditation in general.
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Materials and Methods
Participants
Subjects were 305 Rutgers university undergraduate students enrolled in General
Psychology who participated in the research in exchange for course credit. Of those, 91
subjects were excluded for the following reasons: 14 for procedural errors, 8 for failure to
follow directions, and 69 because English was their second language. Because it was
critical that subjects understand the meditation instructions, only native English speakers
were retained for the experiment. That resulted in a total of 214 participants distributed as
follows: 54 in the Meditation/Narrative condition, 59 in the Meditation/Body condition,
41 in Audiobook/Narrative condition and 60 in the Audiobook/Body condition. The
experiment was conducted in accordance with the protocols approved by the Rutgers
University Institutional Review Board.
Procedure
Subjects completed all tasks and measures on a Dell desktop and listened to the
recordings via a Bluetooth speaker. All measures and trials were administered via
Qualtrics. After signing the consent form, each subject was seated in front of a computer
screen and completed the “Shape Time Trial.” For this task they viewed images of shapes
that appeared briefly (between a few seconds and a minute) on the computer screen and
were asked after each trial to estimate how long the shape had been on the screen. There
were four trials; one trial was a triangle that appeared for 7 seconds; the second was a
pentagon that appeared for 17 seconds; the third a circle that appeared for 37 seconds; the
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MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
fourth a square that appeared for 57 seconds. The order of the four trials was randomized
across subjects.
After completing the “Shape Time Trial,” subjects were randomly assigned to one
of four conditions in a 2x2 between subjects design, the factors being type of recording
subjects heard (meditation induction vs. listening to an audiobook) and focus of
awareness (self/ body vs. narrative). Note that the time spent doing the meditation or
listening to the audiobook excerpt was held constant at 8 minutes for subjects in all four
conditions.
1. Meditation/Bodily: Subjects were given the “mindfulness of body and breath”
exercise (Williams & Penman, 2011) that focuses attention on the body.
2. Meditation/Narrative: Subjects were given a “visualization meditation” (Foster,
2018) that took them on a nature walk to a waterfall.
3. Audiobook/Bodily: Subjects listened to an audio recording of The Hobbit (Shaw,
2005) while sitting in front of a mirror and were instructed focus on themselves.
In order to increase self-awareness in the audiobook condition, we placed mirrors
that were 6-1/4" in diameter in each of the computer booths and told the subjects
to focus on themselves rather than the narrative being presented. Mirrors have
been used extensively in research to increase self-awareness (e.g., Duval &
Wicklund, 1972).
4. Audiobook/Narrative: Subjects just listened to the same excerpts from The Hobbit
(Shaw, 2005) that was used in the Audiobook/bodily-focus condition. They were
asked to pay attention to the story.
Flowchart of experimental procedure; See Figure 2 on page 26 to see a larger
diagram
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After subjects had completed either the meditation induction or the audiobook, they
made a second set of time judgments on the “Shape Time Trial” measure. This was
followed by the following measures: “Subjective Time Estimates,” questions on
focus/mind wandering, a measure of mindfulness -- FFMQ (Baer, Smith, Hopkins,
Krietemeyer, & Toney, 2006), and a self-awareness scale -- SSAS (Govern & Marsch,
2001).
Shape Time Trial: In order to obtain time judgements that are more directly applicable to
real world scenarios, we created our own time estimation task. Participants were provided
images of a triangle, pentagon, circle and square for seven seconds, seventeen seconds,
thirty-seven seconds and fifty-seven seconds respectively. The order the four shapes were
presented in was randomized, but the durations for each corresponding shape was
consistent.
Subjective Time Estimates: Subjects were asked two questions about how long the
meditation induction or audiobook passage seemed to be. The first question (interval) was
“How long was the audiobook that you listened to?” They could either answer 1-2
minutes, 3-4 minutes, 5-6 minutes, 7-8 minutes, 9-10 minutes, 11-12 minutes or 13-14
minutes. They were then asked a second question (sliding scale): “In your opinion, how
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MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
long did the audiobook seem to last? For this question, subjects judged how long the
recording lasted by selecting one point on a 0 (Very Short) to 100 (Very Long) sliding
scale, with the response option starting in the middle (at 50). See Figure 3 on page 27 for
an image of the scale.
Focus/Mind Wandering Questions: Subjects were asked a questioned on how focused
they were on the recording: “How focused were you on the audiobook/meditation?”
Subjects judged how focused they were by selecting one point on a 0 (Not Much) to 100
(Completely) sliding scale, with the response option starting in the middle (at 50).
Subjects were also asked a question on mind wandering: “How often did you find your
mind wandering away from the task during the audiobook?” Subjects judged how their
level of mind wandering by selecting one point on a 0 (Never) to 100 (Most of the Time)
sliding scale, with the response option again starting in the middle (at 50). See Figures 4
and 5 on pages 28 and 29 respectively for images of the scales.
Five-Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ; Baer, Smith, Hopkins,
Krietemeyer, & Toney, 2006): The FFMQ is a 39 item measure consisting of five
subscales (observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judging of inner experience,
and non-reactivity to inner experience) derived from a variety of questionnaires,
including the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS; Brown & Ryan, 2003),
Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (FMI; Buchheld, Grossman, & Walach, 2001), the
Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills (KIMS; Baer, Smith, & Allen, 2004, the
Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale (CAMS; Feldman, Hayes, Kumar, Greeson,
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MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
& Laurenceau, 2006) and the Mindfulness Questionnaire (MQ; Chadwick, Hember,
Mead, Lilley, & Dagnan, 2005). Participants answer questions using a 5-point Likert
scale. Higher scores on the FFMQ means a subject is more “mindful,” whereas lower
values mean the subject is less “mindful.”
Situational Self-Awareness Scale (SSAS; Govern & Marsch, 2001): The Situational
Self-Awareness Scale was developed to detect differences in public and private self-
awareness over time. It is a nine-item questionnaire with answer options ranging from 1
(strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) on a 7-point Likert scale. Larger values mean the
subject is more “self-aware,” and smaller values mean the subject is less “self-aware.”
Debrief: After completing these measures, subjects were debriefed and subsequently
released from the experiment. Credit was given to them electronically within one week of
participation.
Results
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MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
The primary measures of interest were the three sets of time judgments made by
subjects: the “Shape Time Trial” and two “Subjective Time Estimates” of how long the
recording or audio book lasted. Across the three time measures, a pattern for shorter
estimates for subjects in the Meditation conditions relative to the Audiobook conditions
emerged.
Shape Time Trial
Data from the Shape Time Trial were analyzed in a 2 x 2 x 2 ANOVA. Between
subjects factors were Recording (Meditation/Audiobook) and Focus (Bodily/Narrative);
Time Trial (Time 1, Time 2) was a within subjects factor. There was a main effect of
Recording, F(1,840) = 4.856, p < .028. Subjects in the Meditation conditions made
shorter estimates (25.963 seconds) than those in the Audiobook conditions (27.503
seconds) across the four shape stimuli. In addition, there was a marginally significant
interaction between Recording and Time Trial, F(1, 840) = 3.653, p < .056. As shown in
Table 1 (see page 32) and Figure 6 (see page 30), subjects showed significant decreases
in time estimates in the Meditation conditions from Time 1 to Time 2.
Subjective Time Estimate (Interval)
For this measure, subjects selected from one of the following alternatives to
estimate the duration of the recording they had heard (either meditation induction or
audiobook): “1-2 minutes, 3-4 minutes, 5-6 minutes, 7-8 minutes, 9-10 minutes, 11-12
minutes or 13-14 minutes.” Data from this measure were coded on a 7-point scale (1 = 1-
2 minutes, 2 = 3-4 minutes… 7 = 13-14 minutes) and entered into a 2x2 ANOVA. The
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MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
factors were Recording (Meditation/Audiobook) and Focus (Body/Narrative). There was
a significant effect of Recording, F(1, 210) = 23.126, p < .001. Subjects in the Meditation
conditions (3.456) estimated the recordings they listened to were shorter than those in the
Audiobook conditions (4.105). There was also a marginal Recording by Focus interaction,
F(1, 210) = 3.218, p < .074. Judgments of longer time in the Audiobook conditions were
largely driven by those in the Audiobook/Narrative condition
Subjective Time Estimate (Sliding Scale)
In this measure, subjects judged how long the recording lasted by selecting one
point on a 0 (very short) to 100 (very long) sliding scale. Data from this measure were
entered into a 2x2 ANOVA. The factors were Recording (Meditation/Audiobook) and
Focus (Body/Narrative). There was a main effect of Recording that was marginally
significant, F(1, 210) = 3.193, p < .075. Those in the Meditation conditions estimated that
the duration was shorter (60.724 on the sliding scale) than subjects in the Audiobook
conditions (65.291).
Focus on Recording
For the question “How focused were you on the recording,” subjects judged how
focused on recording they felt by selecting one point on a 0 (very short) to 100 (very
long) sliding scale. The 2x2 ANOVA and revealed a significant main effect for
Recording, F(1, 210) = 9.270, p < .003. Subjects in the Meditation conditions were
significantly more focused (62.901) on the recording than the Audiobook conditions
(52.679) on the sliding scale of subjective focus (0-100). There was also a significant
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MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
interaction between Recording and Focus, F(1, 210) = 4.383, p < .038. As illustrated in
Table 2 (see page 33) and Figure 7 (see page 31), the higher level of focus on the
recording in Meditation in comparison to Audiobook appeared largely in the
Meditation/Body condition. The measure of “mind wandering” (How often did you find
your mind wandering away from the task during the audiobook?) found no significant
differences among the conditions.
Situational Self-Awareness Scale (SSAS)
A 2x2 ANOVA showed a significant interaction between Recording and Focus,
F(1,210) = 6.416, p < .012. Subjects in the Meditation/Body condition indicated a higher
level of self-awareness than those in the Meditation/Narrative condition. That would be
expected given subjects in the former condition were instructed to focus on their body
during meditation. There was no significant difference between the audiobook conditions,
as shown Table 3 (page 34).
Five-Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ)
Analysis of the data from the FFMQ measure found a significant interaction
between recording and focus, F(1, 210) = 6.898, p < .009. As shown in Table 4 (page 35),
subjects in the Meditation/Body condition scored higher on the FFMQ than those in the
Meditation/Narrative condition. The opposite pattern occurred in the audiobook
conditions; those in the Audiobook/Narrative condition scored higher on the FFMQ than
those in the Audiobook/Body condition. Neither the SSAS nor FFMQ scales were
21
MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
correlated with measures of time and were, therefore, unhelpful in interpreting the
findings for time estimates.
22
MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
Discussion
Overall, across the three measures of time estimation, subjects in the Meditation
conditions made shorter time judgments than those in the Audiobook conditions. Focus of
attention did not consistently predict time judgments. Contrary to the main hypothesis,
based on prior research, bodily focused meditation did not increase perceived duration
relative to an audiobook control. On the contrary, time judgments for meditation were the
opposite of those reported by Kramer et al (2013).
Although this experiment was modeled on the Kramer et al. research, there was
one major difference with respect to measures of time. In their study, subjects made time
judgments at a very micro level; stimuli were appeared for no more than two seconds on
their Temporal Bisection Task. In designing the present experiment, longer time intervals
were chosen to make the tasks more comparable to temporal experiences in daily life
outside the lab. People have little experience making time estimates that are under a
second or two. They more often make estimates of time in the range of several seconds to
a minute (Shape Time Trial measure) or subjective estimates involving several minutes,
such as listening to the meditation instructions or the audiobook excerpt (Subjective Time
Estimate measures).
Another finding from this experiment may help explain the briefer time estimates
made by those who meditated. When asked how focused they were on the task
(meditation or audiobook), subjects in the Meditation conditions reported being
significantly more focused on the recording they listened to than those in the Audiobook
conditions (62.901 and 52.679 respectively on the sliding scale (0-100) of subjective
focus). This finding indicates that the meditators were much more immersed in the task
23
MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
than those who passively listened to the excerpt from the story in Audiobook conditions.
Time flies when we are having fun and we become immersed in the activity; this is
viewed as characteristic of the state of “flow” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1995). As described by
Csikszentmihalyi, “in waiting situations without the possibility of distraction, when time
is in the focus of awareness and duration expands, self-consciousness is most
pronounced. In contrast, when we are absorbed in a pleasant activity, we are less aware of
ourselves. Time is hardly noticed and therefore contracts” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1995). This
stands in contrast to the state of boredom, in which individuals do relatively overestimate
duration (Danckert & Allman, 2005; Watt, 1991).
Consistent with a “flow” interpretation of the findings, the meditation recordings
did provide specific instructions to keep the listeners engaged/following along, so it
would make sense that that the subjects in the “Meditation” conditions had an easier time
of getting into a state of flow while listening to their recordings. If so, then further
explorations of time perception might well focus on assessing a sense of flow as well as
straightforward time judgments. Standard measures to measure flow states include the
“Flow Questionnaire” and the “Experience Sampling Method” (Moneta, 2012). Other
means used to measure flow have included electromyographic signals (EMG) and the
electroencephalogram (EEG) to identify flow states (Cheron, 2016). Both physiological
and psychological measures should be considered in future investigations of flow. They
may complement one another and eventually help unlock the puzzle of time perception.
24
MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
Tables and Figures
Figure 1
Mindfulness Article Popularity
25
MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
Figure 2
Flowchart of Procedure
26
MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
Figure 3
Subjective Time Estimate (Sliding Scale)
27
MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
Figure 4
Focus Scale
28
MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
Figure 5
Wandering Scale
29
MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
Figure 6
30
Shape Time Trial
Time Trial
Time
Judg
emen
ts
(seco
nds)
MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
Figure 7
31
Focus on Recording
Degr
ee of
Focu
s
Level of Focus
MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
Table 1
Shape Time Trial
32
MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
Table 2
Focus on Recording
33
MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
Table 3
Situational Self-Awareness Scale (SSAS)
34
MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
Table 4
Five-Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ)
35
MEDITATION AND SELF-AWARENESS ON TEMPORAL JUDGEMENTS
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