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A Focus on the Voice: Attention as a Unifying Mechanism Underlying Vocal Training and Mindfulness
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This article reviews recent findings from the author’s laboratory that may provide new insights into how habits are made and broken. Habits are extensively practiced behaviors that are automatically evoked by antecedent cues and performed without their goal (or reinforcer) “in mind.” Goal-directed actions, in contrast, are instrumental behaviors that are performed because their goal is remembered and valued. New results suggest that actions may transition to habit after extended practice when conditions encourage reduced attention to the behavior. Consistent with theories of attention and learning, a behavior may command less attention (and become habitual) as its reinforcer becomes well-predicted by cues in the environment; habit learning is prevented if presentation of the reinforcer is uncertain. Other results suggest that habits are not permanent, and that goal-direction can be restored by several environmental manipulations, including exposure to unexpected reinforcers or context change. Habits are more context-dependent than goal-directed actions are. Habit learning causes retroactive interference in a way that is reminiscent of extinction: It inhibits, but does not erase, goal-direction in a context-dependent way. The findings have implications for the understanding of habitual and goal-directed control of behavior as well as disordered behaviors like addictions.
Objectives
Despite being an ancient tradition, meditation has only become a popular inquiry of research over the past few decades. This resurgence can partially be attributed to the popularization of Eastern meditative practices, such as mindfulness, into Western culture. Though the mechanisms of meditation are not yet scientifically well-understood, systems of attention and executive control may play an important role. The present study aimed to examine potential attentional mechanisms of attention-based meditations across studies.Methods
This paper examines behavioral measures of attention across literature. Studies (K = 87) that assigned participants to or recruited participants who use techniques common in mindfulness practices (focused attention, open monitoring, or both) were meta-analyzed. Outcomes were coded according to attentional network (alerting, orienting, executive control) or facet of executive control (inhibition, shifting, updating).ResultsMeta-analytic results suggest that generalized attention (g = 0.171, 95% CI [0.119, 0.224]), its alerting (g = 0.158, 95% CI [0.059, 0.256]) and executive control (g = 0.203, 95% CI [0.143, 0.264]) networks, and the inhibition (g = 0.159, 95% CI [0.064, 0.253]) and updating (g = 0.256 [0.176, 0.337]) facets of executive control are improved by meditation. There was significant heterogeneity in attention, the alerting and executive control networks, and the inhibition facet. Studies that taught both FA and OM techniques did not show attentional improvements over those that taught the techniques in isolation. Meditation led to greater improvements in accuracy-based tasks than reaction time tasks.Conclusions
This meta-analysis suggests that attention is likely implicated in meditation, and meditation may improve some, but not all, attentional processes. Implications for understanding meditational mechanisms and moderator-related differences are discussed.
Objectives
Long-term meditation practice affects the brain’s ability to sustain attention. However, how this occurs is not well understood. Electroencephalography (EEG) studies have found that during dichotic oddball listening tasks, experienced meditators displayed altered attention-related neural markers including theta phase synchronization (TPS) and event-related potentials (ERP; P200 and P300) to target tones while meditating compared to resting, and compared to non-meditators after intensive meditation interventions. Research is yet to establish whether the changes in the aforementioned neural markers are trait changes which may be observable in meditators irrespective of practice setting.
Methods
The present study expanded on previous research by comparing EEG measures from a dichotic oddball task in a sample of community-based mindfulness meditators (n = 22) to healthy controls with no meditation experience (n = 22). To minimize state effects, neither group practiced meditation during/immediately prior to the EEG session.
Results
No group differences were observed in behavioural performance or either the global amplitude or distribution of theta phase synchronization, P200 or P300. Bayes factor analysis suggested evidence against group differences for the P200 and P300.
Conclusions
The results suggest that increased P200, P300, and TPS do not reflect trait-related changes in a community sample of mindfulness meditators. The present study used a larger sample size than previous research and power analyses suggested the study was sufficiently powered to detect differences. These results add nuance to our understanding of which processes are affected by meditation and the amount of meditation required to generate differences in specific neural processes.
Mindfulness is often used as an umbrella term to characterize a large number of practices, processes, and characteristics. Critics argue that this broad definition has led to misinformation, misunderstanding, and a general lack of methodologically rigorous research. Some of the confusion surrounding mindfulness is also believed to stem from an undifferentiated use of the term mindfulness and meditation. Mindfulness and all other forms of meditation have been shown to modulate the insula, which is the primary hub for interoception. Some have argued that interoception is foundational to mindfulness and may be the primary mechanism by which one benefits from the practice. However, much like the mindfulness literature, interoception remains broadly defined often without precision and with domain-specific meanings and implications. Research demonstrates that the insula and surrounding neural circuits are believed to be responsible for a number of other functions beyond interoception including attention, awareness, and all subjective experiences, much of which has been linked to the mindfulness literature. It has been assumed that mindfulness produces these neuroplasticity and functional effects. There is evidence that mindfulness and some of its benefits may be better described as increased interoception as a result of the neuroplasticity changes in the insula, and the development of the insula and surrounding neural circuits may cultivate dispositional mindfulness. The purposes of this article are to (1) highlight that it may be more accurate to link many of the identified benefits in the mindfulness literature to interoception and its neurological correlates and (2) propose attentional style as a means to clarify some of the confusion surrounding mindfulness, interoception, and meditation. Different meditations require different attentional styles. Attention can be analogous to a focal point with each focal point providing a unique perspective. Given that all meditative techniques modulate the insula, each meditation can provide a unique perspective from which to investigate complex interoceptive signals that may be unavailable from other meditative traditions. It may prove more useful to anchor scientific findings in the concrete body as a means to investigate those rather than a set of abstract, broadly defined meditative techniques.
In this article, we challenge the usefulness of “attention” as a unitary construct and/or neural system. We point out that the concept has too many meanings to justify a single term, and that “attention” is used to refer to both the explanandum (the set of phenomena in need of explanation) and the explanans (the set of processes doing the explaining). To illustrate these points, we focus our discussion on visual selective attention. It is argued that selectivity in processing has emerged through evolution as a design feature of a complex multi-channel sensorimotor system, which generates selective phenomena of “attention” as one of many by-products. Instead of the traditional analytic approach to attention, we suggest a synthetic approach that starts with well-understood mechanisms that do not need to be dedicated to attention, and yet account for the selectivity phenomena under investigation. We conclude that what would serve scientific progress best would be to drop the term “attention” as a label for a specific functional or neural system and instead focus on behaviorally relevant selection processes and the many systems that implement them.
Interoception, the process by which the nervous system senses, interprets, and integrates signals originating from within the body, has become major research topic for mental health and in particular for mind-body interventions. Interoceptive awareness here is defined as the conscious level of interoception with its multiple dimensions potentially accessible to self-report. The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) is an 8-scale state-trait questionnaire with 32 items to measure multiple dimensions of interoception by self-report and was published in November 2012. Its numerous applications in English and other languages revealed low internal consistency reliability for two of its scales. This study’s objective was to improve these scales and the psychometrics of the MAIA by adding three new items to each of the two scales and evaluate these in a new sample. Data were collected within a larger project that took place as part of the Live Science residency programme at the Science Museum London, UK, where visitors to the museum (N = 1,090) completed the MAIA and the six additional items. Based on exploratory factor analysis in one-half of the adult participants and Cronbach alphas, we discarded one and included five of the six additional items into a Version 2 of the MAIA and conducted confirmatory factor analysis in the other half of the participants. The 8-factor model of the resulting 37-item MAIA-2 was confirmed with appropriate fit indices (RMSEA = 0.055 [95% CI 0.052–0.058]; SRMR = 0.064) and improved internal consistency reliability. The MAIA-2 is public domain and available (www.osher.ucsf.edu/maia) for interoception research and the evaluation of clinical mind-body interventions.
Mindfulness has transdiagnostic applicability, but little is known about how people first begin to practice mindfulness and what sustains practice in the long term. The aim of the present research was to explore the experiences of a large sample of people practicing mindfulness, including difficulties with practice and associations between formal and informal mindfulness practice and wellbeing. In this cross-sectional study, 218 participants who were practicing mindfulness or had practiced in the past completed an online survey about how they first began to practice mindfulness, difficulties and supportive factors for continuing to practice, current wellbeing, and psychological flexibility. Participants had practiced mindfulness from under a year up to 43 years. There was no significant difference in the frequency of formal mindfulness practice between those who had attended a face-to-face taught course and those who had not. Common difficulties included finding time to practice formally and falling asleep during formal practice. Content analysis revealed “practical resources,” “time/routine,” “support from others,” and “attitudes and beliefs,” which were supportive factors for maintaining mindfulness practice. Informal mindfulness practice was related to positive wellbeing and psychological flexibility. Frequency (but not duration) of formal mindfulness practice was associated with positive wellbeing; however, neither frequency nor duration of formal mindfulness practice was significantly associated with psychological flexibility. Mindfulness teachers will be able to use the present findings to further support their students by reminding them of the benefits as well as normalising some of the challenges of mindfulness practice including falling asleep.
Electronic supplementary material
The online version of this article (10.1007/s12671-018-0951-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Stress and stress‐related mental health problems are major causes of illness and disability. Mindfulness‐based stress reduction (‘MBSR’) is a group‐based health promotion intervention to improve health and the way people deal with stress and life?s challenges. The core ingredient is mindfulness training through physical and mental exercises practiced daily for eight weeks. The mindful non‐judgmental attitude of being present with what arises is practiced in the formal exercises and in everyday situations. This review assesses the effect of MBSR programs on outcome measures of mental and physical health, quality of life and social functioning in adults.
MBSR has a moderately large effect on outcome measures of mental health, somatic health, and quality of life including social function at post‐intervention when compared to an inactive control. If 100 people go through the MBSR program, 21 more people will have a favourable mental health outcome compared to if they had been put on a wait‐list or gotten only the usual treatment.
These results may be inflated by underreporting of negative trials and moderate heterogeneity (indicating differences between the trials).
MBSR has a small but significant effect on improving mental health at post‐intervention compared to other active treatments. MBSR has the same effect as other active interventions on somatic health, and quality of life (including social function). There was no underreporting of negative trials, and heterogeneity (differences between trials) were small for mental health, moderate for quality of life and large for somatic health.
The effects were similar across all target groups and were generally maintained at follow‐up (1?34 months). The effects were largely independent of gender and study sample. The effects seemed also largely independent of duration and compliance with the MBSR intervention.
No studies report results regarding side‐effects or costs.
Effects were strongly correlated to the effects on measures of mindfulness, indicating that the effects may be related to the increase in self‐reported mindfulness.
Two thirds of the included studies showed a considerable risk of bias, which was higher among studies with inactive than active control groups. Studies of higher quality reported lower effects than studies with low quality. The overall quality of the evidence was moderate, indicating moderate confidence in the reported effect sizes. Further research may change the estimate of effect.
Plain language summary
Mindfulness training improves health and quality of life for adults
Mindfulness‐based stress reduction (MBSR) is used to improve health, quality of life and social functioning. MBSR has a positive effect on mental health outcomes measured right after the intervention and at follow up. It also improves personal development, quality of life, and self‐reported mindfulness.
What is this review about?
Stress and stress‐related mental health problems are major causes of illness and disability. MBSR is a group‐based health promotion intervention to improve health and the way people deal with stress and life's challenges. The core ingredient is mindfulness training through physical and mental exercises practiced daily for eight weeks. The mindful non‐judgmental attitude of being present with what arises is practiced in the formal exercises and in everyday situations. This review assesses the effect of MBSR programs on outcome measures of mental and physical health, quality of life and social functioning in adults.
What is the aim of this review?
This review summarizes all studies that compare the effect of a MBSR program to a control group intervention, in which the participants had been randomly allocated to be in either the MBSR group or a control group. The review summarizes the results in two categories. First, where the effect of the MBSR program was compared to an inactive group (either a wait list group or one receiving ordinary care also received by the MBSR group). Second, where MBSR was compared with an alternative active group intervention.
What studies are included?
The review summarizes 101 randomized controlled trials with a total of 8,135 participants from USA, Europe, Asia and Australia. Twenty‐two trials included persons with mild or moderate psychological problems, 47 targeted people with various somatic conditions and 32 of the studies recruited people from the general population. Seventy‐two studies compared MBSR to an inactive control group, while 37 compared MBSR to an active control intervention. Seven studies compared MBSR to both. Ninety‐six studies contributed data to the meta‐analyses, with data from 7,647 participants.
Is mindfulness effective?
MBSR has a moderately large effect on outcome measures of mental health, somatic health, and quality of life including social function at post‐intervention when compared to an inactive control. If 100 people go through the MBSR program, 21 more people will have a favourable mental health outcome compared to if they had been put on a wait‐list or gotten only the usual treatment.
These results may be inflated by underreporting of negative trials and moderate heterogeneity (indicating differences between the trials).
MBSR has a small but significant effect on improving mental health at post‐intervention compared to other active treatments. MBSR has the same effect as other active interventions on somatic health, and quality of life (including social function). There was no underreporting of negative trials, and heterogeneity (differences between trials) were small for mental health, moderate for quality of life and large for somatic health.
The effects were similar across all target groups and were generally maintained at follow‐up (1–34 months). The effects were largely independent of gender and study sample. The effects seemed also largely independent of duration and compliance with the MBSR intervention. No studies report results regarding side‐effects or costs.
Effects were strongly correlated to the effects on measures of mindfulness, indicating that the effects may be related to the increase in self‐reported mindfulness.
Two thirds of the included studies showed a considerable risk of bias, which was higher among studies with inactive than active control groups. Studies of higher quality reported lower effects than studies with low quality. The overall quality of the evidence was moderate, indicating moderate confidence in the reported effect sizes. Further research may change the estimate of effect.
What do the findings of this review mean?
Based on this review it is reasonable to consider MBSR a moderately well‐documented method for helping adults improve their health and cope better with the challenges and stress that life brings. New research should improve the way the trials are conducted addressing the pitfalls in research on mind‐body interventions.
How up‐to‐date is this review?
The review authors searched for studies up to November 2015. This Campbell Systematic Review was published in October 2017.
Executive summary/Abstract
Background
There is an increasing focus on mind‐body interventions for relieving stress, and improving health and quality of life, accompanied by a growing body of research trying to evaluate such interventions. One of the most well‐known Programs is Mindfulness‐Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), which was developed by Kabat‐Zinn in 1979. Mindfulness is paying attention to the present moment in a non‐judgmental way. The Program is based on old contemplative traditions and involves regular meditation practice. A number of reviews and meta‐analyses have been carried out to evaluate the effects of meditation and mindfulness training, but few have adhered to the meta‐analytic protocol set out by the Cochrane Collaboration and Campbell Collaboration, or focused on MBSR only. The first edition of this review was published in 2012 with a literature search done in 2010, comprising 31 studies. As the field is rapidly developing, an update is called for.
Objectives
To evaluate the effect of Mindfulness‐Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on health, quality of life and social functioning in adults.
Search methods
The following sources were searched, most recently in November 2015: PsycINFO (Ovid), MEDLINE (Ovid), EMBASE (Ovid), AMED (Allied and Complementary Medicine) (Ovid), CINAHL (Ebsco), Ovid Nursing Full Text Plus (Ovid), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), British Nursing Index, (ProQuest), Eric (ProQuest), ProQuest Medical Library, ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source, ProQuest Psychology Journals, Web of Science, SveMed+, Social Services Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts and International Bibliography of Social Sciences.
Selection criteria
The review included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) where the intervention followed the MBSR protocol developed by Kabat‐Zinn, allowing for variations in the length of the MBSR courses. All target groups were accepted, as were all types of control groups, and no language restrictions were imposed.
Data collection and analysis
Two reviewers read titles, retrieved studies, and extracted data from all included studies. Standardized mean differences (as Hedges’ g) from all study outcomes were calculated using the software Comprehensive Meta Analysis. The meta‐analyses were carried out using the Robumeta Package within the statistical program R, with a technique for handling clusters of internally correlated effect estimates. We performed separate meta‐analyses for MBSR compared to either waitlists or treatment as usual (WL/TAU – named inactive), and for MBSR compared to control groups that were offered another active intervention.
Results
The review identified 101 RCTs including the 31 from the first review, with a total of 8,135 participants. Twenty‐two trials included persons with mild or moderate psychological problems, 47 targeted people with various somatic conditions and 32 of the studies recruited people from the general population. Seventy‐two studies compared MBSR to a WL/TAU control group, while 37 compared MBSR to an active control intervention. Seven studies compared MBSR to both a WL/TAU condition and to an active control group. Ninety‐six studies contributed to the meta‐analyses (based on information from 7,647 participants). Two thirds of the included studies showed a considerable risk of bias, and risk of bias was higher among studies with inactive than active control groups.
Post‐intervention Hedges’ g effect sizes for MBSR versus WL/TAU for the outcome measures of mental health, somatic health, and quality of life including social function were, respectively, 0.54 (95% CI 0.44, 0.63), 0.39 (95% CI 0.24, 0.54), and 0.44 (95% CI 0.31, 0.56). Some funnel‐plot asymmetry points to a small degree of underreporting of negative trials. Heterogeneity was moderate for mental health and quality of life, and high for somatic health. Assuming a favourable outcome for 50% of the control group, the main finding of an effect size of 0.54 for improving mental health corresponds to a 65% chance that a random person from the treatment group will have a higher score than a person picked at random from the control group (probability of superiority). Another way of putting it, is that in order to have one more favourable mental health outcome in the treatment group compared to the control group at end of intervention, five people need to be treated (NNT=4.9, 95% CI 4.2, 5.9). Thus, if 100 people go through the treatment, 21 more people will have a favourable outcome compared to if they had been put on a wait‐list or gotten the usual treatment. For 21 studies with follow‐up data, the effect size was generally maintained at follow‐up (1–32 months).
For the comparison of MBSR versus alternative psychosocial interventions at post‐intervention there was a small, statistically significant difference in favour of MBSR improving mental health with a Hedges’ g effect of 0.18 (95% CI 0.05, 0.30), and MBSR was not more effective than other active interventions on outcome measures of somatic health, 0.13 (95% CI ‐0.08, 0.34) and quality of life (including social function), 0.17 (95% CI ‐0.02, 0.35). Heterogeneity was low for mental health, moderate for quality of life and high for somatic health, and there was no funnel‐plot asymmetry. Assuming a favourable outcome for 50% of the control group, the main finding of an effect size of 0.18 for improving mental health corresponds to a 57% chance that a random person from the treatment group will have a higher score than a person picked at random from the control group and the NNT=14, 95% CI 8, 50).
Since the measure of mental health includes outcomes from a larger proportion of the included studies compared to somatic health or quality of life, it is a more robust measure for the effect of the MBSR intervention. It is therefore treated as the main primary outcome for the meta‐analyses. For all comparisons effect sizes were fairly similar across the range of target groups and the effects were generally maintained at follow‐up (1–34 months). Effect sizes for measures of mental health were not particularly influenced by length of intervention, attendance or self‐reported practice, but they were strongly correlated to the effects on measures of mindfulness, indicating that the effects of the MBSR intervention may be related to the increase in self‐reported mindfulness. Sensitivity analyses with exclusion of studies with exceptional findings did not substantially change the results. A majority of studies suffered from risk of bias, and studies of higher quality reported lower effects than studies with low quality. We found no reports of side‐effects or costs in any of the trials.
The overall quality of the evidence was moderate, indicating moderate confidence in the reported effect sizes. However, further research could impact on our confidence in the estimate of effect and may change the estimate.
Authors’ conclusions
MBSR has moderate effect on mental health across a number of outcome measures, for a range of target groups and in a variety of settings, compared to a WL or TAU control group. NNT was 4.9 (95% CI 4.2, 5.9) post‐intervention; on par with other well‐established interventions in the health service. The effect on somatic health is smaller, but still statistically significant. MBSR also seems to improve measures of quality of life and social function when compared to inactive control groups. MBSR improved mental health compared to other active psychosocial interventions, with a NNT = 14 (95% CI 8, 50), and had a similar effect on improving somatic health, and quality of life and social function.
For all comparisons, the effects were maintained at follow‐up and correlated to effects on mindfulness. The quality of the evidence was moderate and should be improved in future studies. There were many studies with considerable bias, and heterogeneity was mostly moderate. In addition, there is indication of underreporting of negative studies when MBSR was compared to inactive controls. These factors might have influenced the results found.
MBSR might be an attractive option to improve health, handle stress, and cope with the strains of life. Ways to further strengthen the effect should be sought. All new trials should include measures of mindfulness and explore moderators and mediators of effects. New studies should register study protocols and adhere to guidelines for reporting of randomized controlled trials.
Conversational voice and speech—which are enlarged and refined in theatrical performance—evolved from the social sounds and gestures of animals. A recent and influential theory in psychophysiology links this evolution to specific changes in the vagus nerve, which is also the parent of the nerves that control the larynx. This “polyvagal theory,” developed by Stephen W. Porges through decades of objective research, offers powerful insights into the nature of stage presence in general and vocal communication in particular, including the visceral impact of voice on the listener. The polyvagal theory is presented here following background on the autonomic nervous system, how vagus nerve activity is measured, and how this nerve impacts communication ability. Strong parallels emerge between the objectively based polyvagal theory and artists’ subjective descriptions of vocal performance. The discussion concludes with implications for theater–voice pedagogy and suggestions for future research linking neuroscience to the vocal arts.
Theorists have used the concept of habitus to explain how skilled agents are capable of responding in an infinite number of ways to the infinite number of possible situations that they encounter in their field of practice. According to some perspectives, habitus is seen to represent a form of regulated improvisation that functions below the threshold of consciousness. However, Bourdieu argued that rational and conscious computation may be required in situations of ‘crisis’ where habitus proves insufficient as a basis for our actions. In the current article, I draw on a range of evidence which indicates that conscious intervention (including self-reflective sensory consciousness) is required not only at points of crisis but also as skilled performers engage in the mundane actions/practices that characterize their everyday training and performance regimes. The interaction of conscious learning and unconscious schemata leads to the development of a reflexive habitus which allows performers to refine and adapt embodied movement patterns over time.
Objective:
This cross-sectional study evaluated event-related potentials (ERPs) across three groups: naïve, novice, and experienced meditators as potential physiological markers of mindfulness meditation competence.
Methods:
Electroencephalographic (EEG) data was collected during a target tone detection task and a Breath Counting task. The Breath Counting task served as the mindfulness meditation condition for the novice and experienced meditator groups. Participants were instructed to respond to target tones with a button press in the first task (Tones), and then ignore the primed tones while breath counting. The primary outcomes were ERP responses to target tones, namely the N2 and P3, as markers of stimulus discrimination and attention, respectively.
Results:
As expected, P3 amplitudes elicited by target tones were attenuated within groups during the Breath Counting task in comparison to the Tones task (p < .001). There was a task by group interaction for P3 (p = .039). Both meditator groups displayed greater change in peak-to-trough P3 amplitudes, with higher amplitudes during the Tones condition and more pronounced reductions in P3 amplitudes during the Breath Counting meditation task in comparison to the naïve group.
Conclusions:
Meditators had stronger P3 amplitude responses to target tones when instructed to attend to the tones, and a greater attenuation of P3 amplitudes when instructed to ignore the same tones during the Breath Counting task. This study introduces the idea of identifying ERP markers as a means of measuring mindfulness meditation competence, and results suggest this may be a valid approach. This information has the potential to improve mindfulness meditation interventions by allowing objective assessment of mindfulness meditation quality.
In the field of Western philosophy, Maurice Merleau-Ponty is something like the patron saint of the body. Although La Mettrie, Diderot, Nietzsche, and Foucault have also passionately championed the bodily dimension of human life, none can match the bulk of rigorous, systematic, and persistent argument that Merleau-Ponty provides to prove the body's primacy in human experience and meaning. With tireless eloquence that almost seems to conquer by its massive unrelenting flow, he insists that the body is not only the crucial source of all perception and action, but also the core of our expressive capability and thus the ground of all language and meaning. Paradoxically, while celebrating the body's role in expression, Merleau-Ponty typically characterizes it in terms of silence. The body, he writes in Phenomenology of Perception, constitutes “the tacit cogito,” “the silent cogito,” the “unspoken cogito.” As our “primary subjectivity,” it is “the consciousness which conditions language,” but itself remains a “silent consciousness” with an “inarticulate grasp of the world” (PP 461-3/402-4/468-70). Forming “the background of silence” (S 58/46) that is necessary for language to emerge, the body, as gesture, is also already “a tacit language” (S 59/47) and the ground of all expression: “every human use of the body is already primordial expression” (S 84/67). © Cambridge University Press 2005 and Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Interoceptive body awareness (IA) is crucial for psychological well-being and plays an important role in many contemplative traditions. However, until recently, standardized self-report measures of IA were scarce, not comprehensive, and the effects of interoceptive training on such measures were largely unknown. The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) questionnaire measures IA with eight different scales. In the current study, we investigated whether and how these different aspects of IA are influenced by a 3-months contemplative intervention in the context of the ReSource project, in which 148 subjects engaged in daily practices of “Body Scan” and “Breath Meditation.” We developed a German version of the MAIA and tested it in a large and diverse sample (n = 1,076). Internal consistencies were similar to the English version (0.56–0.89), retest reliability was high (rs: 0.66–0.79), and the MAIA showed good convergent and discriminant validity. Importantly, interoceptive training improved five out of eight aspects of IA, compared to a retest control group. Participants with low IA scores at baseline showed the biggest changes. Whereas practice duration only weakly predicted individual differences in change, self-reported liking of the practices and degree of integration into daily life predicted changes on most scales. Interestingly, the magnitude of observed changes varied across scales. The strongest changes were observed for the regulatory aspects of IA, that is, how the body is used for self-regulation in daily life. No significant changes were observed for the Noticing aspect (becoming aware of bodily changes), which is the aspect that is predominantly assessed in other IA measures. This differential pattern underscores the importance to assess IA multi-dimensionally, particularly when interested in enhancement of IA through contemplative practice or other mind–body interventions.
Interoception refers to the sensing of internal bodily changes. Interoception interacts with cognition and emotion, making measurement of individual differences in interoceptive ability broadly relevant to neuropsychology. However, inconsistency in how interoception is defined and quantified led to a three-dimensional model. Here, we provide empirical support for dissociation between dimensions of: (1) interoceptive accuracy (performance on objective behavioural tests of heartbeat detection), (2) interoceptive sensibility (self-evaluated assessment of subjective interoception, gauged using interviews/questionnaires) and (3) interoceptive awareness (metacognitive awareness of interoceptive accuracy, e.g. confidence-accuracy correspondence). In a normative sample (N = 80), all three dimensions were distinct and dissociable. Interoceptive accuracy was only partly predicted by interoceptive awareness and interoceptive sensibility. Significant correspondence between dimensions emerged only within the sub-group of individuals with greatest interoceptive accuracy. These findings set the context for defining how the relative balance of accuracy, sensibility and awareness dimensions explain cognitive, emotional and clinical associations of interoceptive ability.
In this issue, Terasawa and colleagues used functional neuroimaging to test for common neural substrates supporting conscious
appraisal of subjective bodily and emotional states and explored how the relationship might account for personality and experience
of anxiety symptoms. Their study highlights a role for the same region of anterior insula cortex in appraisal of emotions
and bodily physiology. The reactivity of this region also mediated the relationship between ‘bodily sensibility’ and social
fear, translating a cognitive representation of subjective physical state into an individual personality trait that influences
social interaction. The task used by Terasawa and colleagues taps into conscious aspects to the expression of this dynamic.
These findings add to increasing evidence for the role of anterior insula as the interface between physiologically driven
internal motivational states, emotional awareness and interpersonal behaviour.
This paper describes the development of a multidimensional self-report measure of interoceptive body awareness. The systematic mixed-methods process involved reviewing the current literature, specifying a multidimensional conceptual framework, evaluating prior instruments, developing items, and analyzing focus group responses to scale items by instructors and patients of body awareness-enhancing therapies. Following refinement by cognitive testing, items were field-tested in students and instructors of mind-body approaches. Final item selection was achieved by submitting the field test data to an iterative process using multiple validation methods, including exploratory cluster and confirmatory factor analyses, comparison between known groups, and correlations with established measures of related constructs. The resulting 32-item multidimensional instrument assesses eight concepts. The psychometric properties of these final scales suggest that the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) may serve as a starting point for research and further collaborative refinement.
Objective
To provide a comprehensive review and evaluation of the psychological and neurophysiological literature pertaining to mindfulness meditation.
Methods
A search for papers in English was undertaken using PsycINFO (from 1804 onward), MedLine (from 1966 onward) and the Cochrane Library with the following search terms: Vipassana, Mindfulness, Meditation, Zen, Insight, EEG, ERP, fMRI, neuroimaging and intervention. In addition, retrieved papers and reports known to the authors were also reviewed for additional relevant literature.
Results
Mindfulness-based therapeutic interventions appear to be effective in the treatment of depression, anxiety, psychosis, borderline personality disorder and suicidal/self-harm behaviour. Mindfulness meditation per se is effective in reducing substance use and recidivism rates in incarcerated populations but has not been specifically investigated in populations with psychiatric disorders. Electroencephalography research suggests increased alpha, theta and beta activity in frontal and posterior regions, some gamma band effects, with theta activity strongly related to level of experience of meditation; however, these findings have not been consistent. The few neuroimaging studies that have been conducted suggest volumetric and functional change in key brain regions.
Conclusions
Preliminary findings from treatment outcome studies provide support for the application of mindfulness-based interventions in the treatment of affective, anxiety and personality disorders. However, direct evidence for the effectiveness of mindfulness meditation per se in the treatment of psychiatric disorders is needed. Current neurophysiological and imaging research findings have identified neural changes in association with meditation and provide a potentially promising avenue for future research.
There has been substantial interest in mindfulness as an approach to reduce cognitive vulnerability to stress and emotional distress in recent years. However, thus far mindfulness has not been defined operationally. This paper describes the results of recent meetings held to establish a consensus on mindfulness and to develop conjointly a testable operational definition. We propose a two-component model of mindfulness and specify each component in terms of specific behaviors, experiential manifestations, and implicated psychological processes. We then address issues regarding temporal stability and situational specificity and speculate on the conceptual and operational distinctiveness of mindfulness. We conclude this paper by discussing implications for instrument development and briefly describing our own approach to measurement.
Baer's review (2003; this issue) suggests that mindf ulness-based interventions are clinically efficacious, but that better designed studies are now needed to substantiate the field and place it on a firm foundation for future growth. Her review, coupled with other lines of evidence, suggests that interest in incorporating mindfulness into clinical interventions in medicine and psychology is growing. It is thus important that professionals coming to this field understand some of the unique factors associated with the delivery of mindfulness-based interventions and the potential conceptual and practical pitfalls of not recognizing the features of this broadly unfamiliar landscape. This commentary highlights and contextualizes (1) what exactly mindfulness is, (2) where it came from, (3) how it came to be introduced into medicine and health care, (4) issues of cross-cultural sensitivity and understanding in the study of meditative practices stemming from other cultures and in applications of them in novel settings, (5) why it is important for people who are teaching mind-fulness to practice themselves, (6) results from 3 recent studies from the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society not reviewed by Baer but which raise a number of key questions about clinical applicability, study design, and mechanism of action, and (7) current opportunities for professional training and development in mindfulness and its clinical applications.
A three-stimulus auditory oddball series was presented to experienced Vipassana meditators during meditation and a control thought period to elicit event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in the two different mental states. The stimuli consisted of a frequent standard tone (500 Hz), an infrequent oddball tone (1000 Hz), and an infrequent distracter (white noise), with all stimuli passively presented through headphones and no task imposed. The strongest meditation compared to control state effects occurred for the distracter stimuli: N1 amplitude from the distracter was reduced frontally during meditation; P2 amplitude from both the distracter and oddball stimuli were somewhat reduced during meditation; P3a amplitude from the distracter was reduced during meditation. The meditation-induced reduction in P3a amplitude was strongest in participants reporting more hours of daily meditation practice and was not evident in participants reporting drowsiness during their experimental meditative session. The findings suggest that meditation state can decrease the amplitude of neurophysiologic processes that subserve attentional engagement elicited by unexpected and distracting stimuli. Consistent with the aim of Vipassana meditation to reduce cognitive and emotional reactivity, the state effect of reduced P3a amplitude to distracting stimuli reflects decreased automated reactivity and evaluative processing of task irrelevant attention-demanding stimuli.
Improvements in attentional performance are at the core of proposed mechanisms for stress reduction in mindfulness meditation practices. However, this claim can be questioned because no previous studies have actively manipulated test effort in control groups and controlled for effects of stress reduction per se. In a blinded design, 48 young, healthy meditation novices were randomly assigned to a mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), nonmindfulness stress reduction (NMSR), or inactive control group. At posttest, inactive controls were randomly split into nonincentive and incentive controls, the latter receiving a financial reward to improve attentional performance. Pre- and postintervention, 5 validated attention paradigms were employed along with self-report scales on mindfulness and perceived stress and saliva cortisol samples to measure physiological stress. Attentional effects of MBSR, NMSR, and the financial incentive were comparable or significantly larger in the incentive group on all reaction-time-based measures. However, selective attention in the MBSR group improved significantly more than in any other group. Similarly, only the MBSR intervention improved the threshold for conscious perception and visual working memory capacity. Furthermore, stress-reducing effects of MBSR were supported because those in the MBSR group showed significantly less perceived and physiological stress while increasing their mindfulness levels significantly. We argue that MBSR may contribute uniquely to attentional improvements but that further research focusing on non-reaction-time-based measures and outcomes less confounded by test effort is needed. Critically, our data demonstrate that previously observed improvements of attention after MBSR may be seriously confounded by test effort and nonmindfulness stress reduction.
Mindfulness practice and protocols—often referred to as mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs)—have become increasingly popular in every sector of society, including health care, education, business, and government. Due to this exponential growth, thoughtful re flection is needed to understand the implications of, and interactions between, the histori cal context of mindfulness (insights and traditions that have been cultivated over the past 25 centuries) and its recent history (the adaptation and applications within healthcare, therapeutic and modern culture, primarily since the 1980s).
Research has shown that MBIs have significant health benefits including decreased stress, insomnia, anxiety, and panic, along with enhancing personal well-being, perceptu al sensitivity, processing speed, empathy, concentration, reaction time, motor skills, and cognitive performance including short- and long-term memory recall and academic per formance. As with any adaptation, skillful decisions have to be made about what is includ ed and excluded. Concerns and critiques have been raised by clinicians, researchers, and Buddhist scholars about the potential impact that the decontextualization of mindfulness from its original roots may have on the efficacy, content, focus, and delivery of MBIs. By honoring and reflecting on the insights, intentions, and work from both historical and contemporary perspectives of mindfulness, the field can support the continued develop ment of effective, applicable, and accessible interventions and programs.
The psychological aspect of elite performance is increasingly recognized. Indeed, many elite athletes and sportspeople employ psychological techniques within their practice to reduce excess physical tension and feelings of performance anxiety. However, similar practices are less often part of standard singing training. Therefore, this study aimed to integrate mindfulness and wellbeing methods into private voice practice and explore whether increasing the mind-body connection had a positive effect on the singing voice. The methods adopted were Fitzmaurice Voicework®, Organic Intelligence®, and Ziva Meditation, which were implemented alongside singing practice over the course of four months. This study adopted a practice-as-research methodology, so all results are self-reflective. Integrating Fitzmaurice Voicework, Organic Intelligence, and Ziva Meditation into regular singing practice (1) reduced feelings of performance anxiety and (2) increased feelings of confidence and physical ease during singing. The findings of this practice-as-research suggest that increasing the mind-body connection may reduce performance anxiety and thereby—in conjunction with meaningful singing training—improve vocal health, enjoyment, and the rate at which singing technique is acquired.
Aging is associated with a decline in performance and speed of attentional processing. Mindfulness has been shown to enhance attentional performance, however evidence of this is lacking in aging cohorts. A longitudinal RCT was conducted to examine the effect of mindfulness training on attentional performance in healthy older adults (n = 49) together with an active control computer-based attention training group (n = 30). While both groups displayed decreased N2 amplitudes at frontal and central regions during an auditory oddball task after training, only the mindfulness group showed reductions in frontal N2 and P3 latency. These results suggest that programs targeting sustained attention may result in efficient allocation of attentional resources in older adults. In particular, mindfulness may enhance the speed of attentional processes which are known to decline in aging, thereby providing benefits against age-related cognitive decline.
Fitzmaurice Voicework (FV) is a voice training methodology used by performing artists and in corporate and clinical settings. Although little quantitative research has been done on FV, reports from practitioners suggest that it may enhance cognitive control during performance. The present study used neuroimaging to investigate the neurobiological effects of FV. Ten FV-certified teachers participated in a pilot study in which they were scanned pre- and post-FV Destructuring/tremoring (DsT) and gentle aerobics. In resting state scans, greater connectivity was observed between the right executive control network (RECN) and the language network post-FV DsT relative to gentle aerobics, whereas RECN connectivity between anterior salience and visuospatial networks was reduced. During a category learning test, right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (part of RECN) activation on correct trials was greater for post-FV DsT compared to pre-FV DsT. Together, these results suggest that FV could impact executive cognitive control networks in the brain, corroborating reports from practitioners, suggesting a locus for potential therapeutic effects, and securing critical pilot data necessary to support further (and larger) studies.
The modern mindfulness movement rests largely on the twin pillars of scientific investigation and Buddhist philosophy of mind. However, in its current form and application, the scientific study of meditation is celebrated while the Buddhist roots of these practices and modes of investigation are often obscured. This paper highlights the utility and value of Buddhist ideas in the context of studying the mind in various domains of contemplative science. The role of Buddhism in the development of this field is discussed, as well as major areas of current influence, including neurophenomenology, subjective experience, attention, self, and the cultivation of prosocial qualities.
When learning a new skill, even if we have been instructed exactly what to do, it is often necessary to practice for hours, weeks or months before we achieve proficient and fluid performance. Practice has a multitude of effects on behavior, including increasing the speed of performance, rendering the practiced behavior habitual and reducing the cognitive load required to perform the task. These effects are often collectively referred to as automaticity. Here, we argue that these effects can be explained as multiple consequences of a single principle: caching of the outcome of frequently occurring computations. We further argue that, in the context of more complex task representations, caching different intermediate computations can give rise to more nuanced behavioral signatures, including dissociation between skill, habit and cognitive load.
This preliminary study investigated the effects of training in Fitzmaurice Voicework® (FV) and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Techniques on the physiological stress markers and mental states of student actors preparing to perform. Twelve participants were recruited from an undergraduate program in theatre and music theatre. Six students received training in both meditative/mindfulness techniques and FV as part of their BFA Performance curriculum for two semesters. Six non-BFA students were wait-listed for the training as a control group. Both groups were offered three hours of outside meditative practice during the academic year. Physiologic measures included readings in heart rate and respiration at four time points before an audition or performance over the course of an academic year. In addition, self-report questionnaires that evaluated the student’s psycho-physical state at baseline and at the final data collection time points were used qualitatively. The study hypotheses were as follows: (1) the intervention group would demonstrate lower heart rate and respiratory rate than the control group; (2) the intervention group would report lower perceived stress than the control group by the end of the study. Results of this preliminary investigation indicated that the experimental group experienced less perceived stress around performing, but findings from the physiologic measures did not support the hypotheses.
This study explores the relationship between the student experience of performance anxiety and Fitzmaurice Voicework’s Destructuring in undergraduate actor training. While current voice texts primarily focus on reducing habitual tension through various exercises, the acute and detrimental experience of performance anxiety is not fully addressed. However, the problem does not solely exist in the lack of literature for voice pedagogy, but is threefold: 1) Systemic: there are no clear coping strategies for performance anxiety embedded in theatre or voice training; 2) Practical: voice teachers are not qualified to provide therapeutic support to students dealing with performance anxiety; and 3) Research: performance anxiety has a debilitating effect on vocal performance. Utilizing Grounded Theory as a methodology, four phases of data collection were triangulated. Three core themes emerged from the data: increased body awareness, parasympathetic activation, and self-care. From these themes, a theory was formed that Fitzmaurice Voicework’s Destructuring work can be used as a self-regulation strategy for students with performance anxiety, and also promote autonomy and resilience. Ultimately, students can use Fitzmaurice Voicework as a practical way to self-regulate and increase awareness of their somatic experiences, as well as promote self-care in their training.
The findings of a study by Cahn and Polich (2009) suggests that there is an effect of a meditative state on three event-related potential (ERP) brain markers of “low-level” auditory attention (i.e., acoustic representations in sensory memory) in expert meditators: the N1, the P2, and the P3a. The current study built on these findings by examining trait and state effects of meditation on the passive auditory mismatch negativity (MMN), N1, and P2 ERPs. We found that the MMN was significantly larger in meditators than non-meditators regardless of whether they were meditating or not (a trait effect), and that N1 amplitude was significantly attenuated during meditation in non-meditators but not expert meditators (an interaction between trait and state). These outcomes suggest that low-level attention is superior in long-term meditators in general. In contrast, low-level attention is reduced in non-meditators when they are asked to meditate for the first time, possibly due to auditory fatigue or cognitive overload.
Fifty-eight students at a small liberal arts college in northeastern United States participated in a study of inattentional blindness (IB) and inattentional insensitivity (IIS). IIS is the inability to detect the sensation of a salient stimulus while performing a task within a congruent sensory modality. Participants’ driving performance and situation awareness (SA) were tested in a driving simulator. Similar to previous research, IB was found to exist in about 45% of the participants who watched the Invisible Gorilla video. However, over 80% of participants displayed IIS in a tactile condition. Moreover, participants who displayed IIS showed better performance in SA. In addition, IIS participants were less likely to slam on the brakes when driving the simulator compared to participants who noticed the irrelevant tactile stimulus. Finally, it was found that participants who have high working memory (WM) are more likely to correctly count the number of basketball passes made in the Invisible Gorilla video than participants who have low WM.
Voice Work: Art and Science in Changing Voices is a key work that addresses the theoretical and experiential aspects common to the practical vocal work of the three major voice practitioner professions - voice training, singing teaching, and speech and language pathology. The first half of the book describes the nature of voice work along the normal-abnormal voice continuum, reviews ways in which the mechanism and function of the voice can be explored, and introduces the reader to an original model of voice assessment, suitable for all voice practitioners. The second half describes the theory behind core aspects of voice and provides an extensive range of related practical voice work ideas. Throughout the book, there are a number of case studies drawn from the author's own experiences and a companion website, providing audio clips to illustrate aspects of the text, can be found at www.wiley.com/go/shewell.
Arien Mack and Irvin Rock make the radical claim that there is no conscious perception of the visual world without attention to it.
Many people believe that merely by opening their eyes, they see everything in their field of view; in fact, a line of psychological research has been taken as evidence of the existence of so-called preattentional perception. In Inattentional Blindness, Arien Mack and Irvin Rock make the radical claim that there is no such thing—that there is no conscious perception of the visual world without attention to it.
The authors present a narrative chronicle of their research. Thus, the reader follows the trail that led to the final conclusions, learning why initial hypotheses and explanations were discarded or revised, and how new questions arose along the way. The phenomenon of inattentional blindness has theoretical importance for cognitive psychologists studying perception, attention, and consciousness, as well as for philosophers and neuroscientists interested in the problem of consciousness.
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In this article I share some of my experiences of practising Korean Zen meditation and how, without ever mentioning the word 'mindfulness,' this practice helps us to become mindful. This leads me to suggest that the main ingredients of Buddhist meditation are samatha (which I will translate here as 'concentration') and vipassana (which I will call 'experiential enquiry'). No matter which Buddhist tradition one follows, the practice of samatha and vipassana will lead to the cultivation of mindfulness. I also intend to show how the traditional doctrine of the 'four great efforts' is very close to therapeutic methods advocated in MBCT. I will also propose that the Buddha's five methods of dealing with difficult thoughts as presented in the Vitakkhasa[image omitted][image omitted]hana Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 20) are examples of an early Buddhist cognitive behavioural strategy.
Thirty-six participants were tested on inattentional blindness (IB), inattentional insensitivity for tactile stimuli, and inattentional insensitivity for olfactory stimuli. Inattentional insensitivity (IIS) is the inability to detect the sensation of a salient stimulus while performing a task within a congruent sensory modality. The Invisible Gorilla video (Simons, 2003) was used to test IB. Half of the participants were tasked while engaged in each sensory condition, and half of the participants were not tasked. Chi square analyses showed that tasked participants displayed more IB than nontasked participants. In addition, tasked participants in the tactile condition displayed more IIS for a salient tactile stimulus than participants who were not tasked. No differences were found between groups for IIS in the olfactory condition. High working memory (WM) participants showed better performance than low WM participants in the tactile task. High WM participants also showed better performance during the visual condition (i.e., higher accuracy for basketball counts). Finally, results suggest a possible relationship between IIS with performance across different sensory modalities.
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Surprising as it may seem, research shows that we rarely see what we are looking at unless our attention is directed to it. This phenomenon can have serious life-and-death consequences. Although the inextricable link between perceiving and attending was noted long ago by Aristotle, this phenomenon, now called inattentional blindness (IB), only recently has been named and carefully studied. Among the many questions that have been raised about IB are questions about the fate of the clearly visible, yet unseen stimuli, whether any stimuli reliably capture attention, and, if so, what they have in common. Finally, is IB an instance of rapid forgetting, or is it a failure to perceive?
Susana Bloch is Directeur de Recherches of the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and works in Paris at the Institut des Neurosciences, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 9 quai St. Bernard, BP 12., F-75005, Paris, France.
1. I gratefully acknowledge Robert Barton, Richard Geer, and Pedro Sándor for many insightful discussions around the work here presented.
2. For instance, experimental psychologists are concerned with the more measurable behavioral characteristics of emotions, while physiologists try to find out the electrophysiological, chemical, or neurohumoral process involved mostly in the animal model, thus eliminating the possibility of looking at the subjective process occurring. In fact, the analysis of subjective states has been left to philosophers or psychotherapists, safely out of scientific hands. As a consequence of these different approaches, a fragmentation of the emotional event has resulted and a dualistic body-mind view about emotions keeps emerging. Such dualism is even present in the terminology which differentiates feelings from emotions, as if they were "separate" processes. Direct practitioners, on the other hand, when working with the body (Alexander, Feldenkrais, Rolfing, etc.) or the voice or the breathing, tend to be more integrated in their empirical approach to the emotions.
3. The subject was placed on a couch in a soundproof isolated chamber. External electrodes for recording heart rate and muscular tension and a strain gauge for recording respiratory movements were attached. Once recording conditions became stable, subjects were asked to remember as vividly as possible strong emotionally charged life experiences. When the evocation ended, subjects reported what they had felt.
4. These emotions were considered as basic because they correspond to universal invariants of behavior—in a Darwinian sense—and are present in the animal and in the human infant either as innate behavior or apparent at very early stages of post-natal development. The set of bodily responses of such basic emotions is biologically suited for adaptive and survival functions, such as facing danger (fear), chasing a territorial invader (anger), protecting an infant (tenderness), mating (erotic love), etc.
5. With respect to erotic love and tenderness, which were not studied by Paul Ekman, distinct facial expressions and breathing characteristics differentiating between these emotions were also found by us (Bloch, Lemeignan, and Aguilera; Bloch and Lemeignan; Lemeignan et al.).
6. The universality of these prototypical postural features is also implied in Michael Chekhov's concept of "psychological gestures." This author distinguishes them from the natural gestures of everyday life in the sense that they are archetypal, serving "as an original model for all possible gestures of the same kind" (77; my emphasis). For instance, the brooding quality of an introspective character is depicted by Chekhov as a person in a crouched position with folded arms and bent head (67 drawing 3). This is close to the postural effector pattern of sadness (Bloch, Orthous, and Santibáñez; Bloch and Lemeignan).
7. In a study done in my laboratory in Paris, in collaboration with Madeleine Lemeignan (neurophysiologist) and Nancy Aguilera (psychologist), we did a more quantitative study with thirty-six subjects. Recordings of respiratory movements during emotional states allowed us to quantify a variety of respiratory parameters such as amplitudes and frequencies of the fundamental cycles, relation between the duration of inspiration and that of expiration, and duration of the intercyclic "pause." We found that the respiratory movements are differentiated among the six emotions by their frequency (cycles per minute), by the amplitudes of the fundamental cycles, by the duration of the intercycle "pause," and/or by the superimposition of small saccadic (staccato) movements into the fundamental cycles (Bloch, Lemeignan, and Aguilera).
8. A typical example of emotional induction by reproducing corresponding effector patterns was obtained with an actor from Spain who knew nothing about our work and who willingly agreed to participate in the experiment. The entire session was filmed, and what follows is an approximate transcription of what happened (the video document is in my possession). After some small talk to make the actor feel at ease and to adjust the filming conditions, I gave the following instructions: "Please begin to breathe in and out through your nose with rapid and regular deep breaths; keep...
Educational taxonomies developed by Bloom, Krathwohl, and collaborators have been used for decades as frameworks for instructional objectives, curriculum design, and assessments of achievement. However, their scope is now too limited. The well‐known cognitive domain is extended to include ideational functions of imagination and creativity, and the affective domain is enhanced to include internalization, wonder, and risk taking. The psychomotor domain is expanded into a sensorimotor domain, incorporating five senses along with balance, spatial relationships, movement, and other physical activity. A social domain is introduced to accentuate sociocultural processes that accompany thinking, feeling, and sensing/movement. Lastly, the four domains are synthesized into a unified domain of thinking, feeling, sensing/moving, and Interacting to optimize potential and self‐fulfillment for all students.
This book provides a foundation to the principles of psychology. It draws upon the natural sciences, avoiding metaphysics, for the basis of its information. According to James, this book, assuming that thoughts and feelings exist and are vehicles of knowledge, thereupon contends that psychology, when it has ascertained the empirical correlation of the various sorts of thought or feeling with definite conditions of the brain, can go no farther as a natural science. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)