Meditation May Sharpen Attention Skills, Study Shows Meditation Appears To Train The Brain To Pay Closer Attention - CBS News
Meditation May Sharpen Attention Skills, Study Shows Meditation Appears To Train The Brain To Pay Closer Attention - CBS News
Meditation may train the brain to pay close attention, a new study shows.
The study comes from researchers including Richard Davidson, PhD, professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
They studied 17 people who were experienced in meditation and 23 people of similar backgrounds who were novices in meditation.
[...]
At the end of their meditation training, the researchers tested participants' attention skills.
In the attention test, participants watched a series of letters shown one by one on a computer screen. Each letter was displayed for less than a second.
Every now and then, a letter was followed by a number, instead of another letter. Participants were asked to name the numbers, which (like the letters) only appeared for a split second.
The researchers didn't ask participants to meditate during the tests.
Compared with the meditation novices, participants who had attended the three-month intensive meditation retreat were better at noticing the numbers mixed into the string of letters. The researchers say the findings show that meditation served as mental training that improved control over attention.
Meditation may train the brain to pay close attention, a new study shows.
The study comes from researchers including Richard Davidson, PhD, professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
They studied 17 people who were experienced in meditation and 23 people of similar backgrounds who were novices in meditation.
[...]
At the end of their meditation training, the researchers tested participants' attention skills.
In the attention test, participants watched a series of letters shown one by one on a computer screen. Each letter was displayed for less than a second.
Every now and then, a letter was followed by a number, instead of another letter. Participants were asked to name the numbers, which (like the letters) only appeared for a split second.
The researchers didn't ask participants to meditate during the tests.
Compared with the meditation novices, participants who had attended the three-month intensive meditation retreat were better at noticing the numbers mixed into the string of letters. The researchers say the findings show that meditation served as mental training that improved control over attention.
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