Meditation an effective way to enhance concentration--study
POSTED July 15, 2010 - 13:33 | POSTED BY Neharika Sabharwal
Last edited by Harpreet Bhagrath on July 15, 2010 - 15:00
According to researchers, meditation is a terrific technique for improving concentration and building mental fortitude, focus, and will power.
Lead author of the study, Katherine MacLean from the University of California Davis, was inspired by Buddhist monks who spend years training in meditation.
She stated, "You wonder if the mental skills, the calmness, the peace that they express, if those things are a result of their very intensive training or if they were just very special people to begin with.”
The impact of meditation on mental ability assessed
In a bid to assess the impact of regular meditation on mental abilities, the researchers recruited a group of 60 people with an average age of about 49 years.
The participants were split into two groups. One group joined a three-month meditation retreat in Colorado with B. Alan Wallace, a meditation teacher and Buddhist scholar, while the second acted as control group.
None of the participants were novices to meditative therapy since all had been on at least three five-to-ten day retreats earlier.
As a part of the study, the participants took a 30-minute computer test thrice, in which they watched lines flash across the screen.
Generally, most of the lines were of equal length, but occasionally a shorter one would emerge.
The task was aimed to measure how well the subjects could make out fine visual distinctions and sustain visual attention.
It required them to quickly respond by clicking the computer mouse when the difference was perceived.
Outcome of the study
The researchers noted that as the training progressed, the participant’s attention span improved. Meditation helped them distinguish the minute differences quite easily.
This improvement in performance was evident for five months after the program ended and was particularly enhanced in those who practiced meditation daily.
MacLean stated, "Because this task is so boring and yet is also very neutral, it’s kind of a perfect index of meditation training.
"People may think meditation is something that makes you feel good and going on a meditation retreat is like going on vacation, and you get to be at peace with yourself. That's what people think until they try it.
"Then you realize how challenging it is to just sit and observe something without being distracted."
The results are published in Psychological Science.
In:
