Attention Review

7/27/2019 Attention Review

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Letter No.V-34564, Reg.533/2007-2008 INDIAN JOURNAL OF RESEARCH(2011)5, 111-115

ANVIKSHIKI ISSN 0973-9777 Advance Access publication 6 Aug.2011

EFFECT OF MEDITATION ON ATTENTION: A BRIEF REVIEW

G. Madhavi K. Durga* AND D. Vasanta Kumari**

Abstract

Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years by many cultures both in the East and the West as something

essential to the human spirit which is not dependent on race, history, geography or any particular religion. In the

ancient period, meditation is thought to be a pure spiritual aspect which is helpful to achieve an enlightened personality.

But in the present scenario, meditation was proved to have more concern with health, consciousness, intellect and self-

realization. This paper reviews the studies based on effect of meditation on attention. Many studies were conducted in

abroad and few studies were conducted in India. Findings reveal that practice of meditation improved attention of the

practitioners.

MeditationThe English word Meditation comes from the Latin word 'meditatio' which originally indicated every type of

physical or intellectual exercise, then later evolved into the more specific meaning contemplation. This usage

is found in Christian Spirituality, for example, Meditation on the sufferings of Christ"; as well as westernphilosophy, as in Descartes Meditations on first philosophy".

However, Meditation in its modern sense also refers to a separate practice unrelated to Christianmeditations. In late 19th century, Theosophists adapted the word 'meditation to refer to various spiritual practices

drawn from Hinduism, Buddhism and other eastern religions. Thus, the English word 'meditation' does not

exclusively translate any single term or concept, and can be used to translate words such as the Sanskrit 'Dhyana'.

Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years by many cultures both in the East and the West as

something essential to the human spirit which is not dependent on race, history, geography or any particular religion.

In the ancient period, meditation is thought to be a pure spiritual aspect which is helpful to achieve an enlightenedpersonality. But in the present scenario, meditation was proved to have more concern with health, consciousness,

intellect and self-realization. In the East, meditation has been used as a method to enable the practitioners to attain

states of higher of superior consciousness which might reveal them the nature of existence. In the west, meditation

has become a technique of considerable interest as it appeared to be beneficial to the practitioners, and as a

technique in scientific, medical and psychotherapeutic settings for promoting health and welfare of man.

*Research Scholar, Faculty of Education, Dayalbagh Educational Institute (Dayalbagh) Agra (U.P.) India.**Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Dayalbagh Educational Institute (Dayalbagh) Agra (U.P.) India.

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The Author 2011, Published by Mpasvo Press on behalf of the Maneesha Publication & Shodha Viveka Organization (MPASVO).All rights reserved. For permissions, Please e-Mail: [email protected], Read this paper on www.onlineijra.com


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The word meditation is used to describe varied states of inner stillness and the methods of attaining these

states. Meditation is an exercise, aiming to prevent thoughts in a natural way, by deeply relaxing the physical body

and then trying to keep the mind concentrate on a particular type of thought. This state may be maintained for

certain time duration depending on one's skill.

Meditation is usually defined as one of the following:

1. A state that is experienced when the mind dissolves and is free of all thoughts.2. Focusing the mind on a single object.

According to Naranjo (1971), practice of meditation generally involves an effort to stop mental or other

activity to set attention upon a single object, sensation, utterance, issue, mental state or activity.

Jonathan Smith (1975) defined meditation as a family of mental exercises that generally involve calmly

limiting thought and attention. Such exercises vary widely and can involve sitting still and counting breaths, attendingto a repeated thought or focusing on virtually any simple external or internal stimulus.

Roger Walsh (1983) defined meditation as a family of practices that train attention in order to heighten

awareness and bring mental processes under greater voluntary control. It is fundamentally a regular practice undertaken for the sake of inner peace. Basic meditation is most frequently by sitting quietly and bringing the mind to a

single focus. This focus may for example, ones own breath, a candle or an internally repeated word or phrase

(mantra).

Many studies reported that meditation is helpful in reducing anxiety ((Lintel, 1980; Delmonte, 1985;Eppley et al., 1999), test anxiety (Kindlon 1983), stress and depression (Deberry, 1982; Carlin and Lee, 1977). It

was concluded that meditation also helps in improving psychological health (Hjelle, 1974). Meditation is also

helpful in improving attention (Valentine et.al), memory and intelligence (Tim, S.K., 1995), self concept (Gupta,N.C.,1974), problem-solving effectiveness (Kindler,1979), memory (Verma et.al.1982), academic performance

(Fiebert&Mead,1981; Hall,P.D, 1999), field dependence and reading achievement (Linden,1973) through

meditation. Also, meditations impact has been tested on elementary school students (Abrams, 1977), juvenile

offenders (Childs, 1974), and prisoners (Shanmugam T.E., 1992). These studies conclude that meditation is a

prominent factor for achieving mental and psychological health. The present study investigates the effect ofmeditation practice on scientific thinking.

Attention

According to Dandapani, S (2000), Attention can be described as the selective activity of the human organism

whereby ones conscious is focused upon a specific, narrow field to the exclusion of everything else in theenvironment.

According to William James, attention is the taking possession of the mind in clear and vivid form of what

seem several simultaneous objects or trains of thought (James, 1890, p. 404). Modern cognitive psychology

describes attention as the ongoing process of filtering out information from the perceived environment and offocusing on specific elements. Attention is the mechanism that acts as a filter for this sensory information so that the

most important and relevant aspects of the environment can be processed quickly and efficiently (Ashcraft, 2005;

Goldstein, 2007). Since the brain only has a limited amount of resources to process and understand this vast amount

of information, the process of focusing on only important stimuli is critical in an environment where infinite

amounts of sensory stimuli are constantly presented (Ashcraft, 2005; Goldstein, 2007).

Effect of Meditation on Attention

The literature on attention reveals that attention is effected by meditation, yoga, sleep, stress, alcohol, and

drugs. This paper reviews the studies based on the effect of meditation on attention only. Yuille and Sereda

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(1980) isolated meditation as a variable that could affect specific cognitive variables. Their objective was to

discover if participants who practiced transcendental meditation (TM) experienced any unique effects on associativememory, attention, and intelligence as compared to those who practiced savasana yoga, pseudo-meditation, or no

intervention. The participants were randomly assigned. The interventions lasted three months, containing pre-test

and post-test sessions. A numerosity estimation test was used to measure perception and attention skills. Yuille andSereda found no statistically significant increases in any of the groups and concluded that meditation did not

improve any of the cognitive faculties measures. Small group sizes, due to high drop-out rates, may have contributed

to these findings. At the beginning of the study there were 136 total participants, but the study had a dropout rate of

47.25%. Possible limitations included the large number of measures given at once and the lack of particular tests tomeasure certain aspects affected by meditation.

In a report from the U.S. Department of Education, the effect of meditation and progressive relaxation on

24 boys aged 7-12 who had been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity was investigated

(Kratter & Hogan, 1983). Researchers hypothesized that both a muscle-relaxation and mediation group woulddecrease in impulsivity, but only the meditation group would increase in attention. Participants attended two weekly

20 minute sessions of meditation, progressive relaxation, or non-intervention over a four-week period and they were

encouraged to practice at home. Researchers measured or recorded impulsivity, selective attention, internal controlof behavior, and behavior of the students at home. Out of the three interventions, meditation was the only one that

had a statistically significant effect on selective attention. Kratter and Hogan (1983) asserted that this was due tomeditations ability to induce relaxation, in addition to training their attention skills.

N.Jhansi Rani and P.V.Krishna Rao (1996) carried out an investigation on two independent groups of

subjects. The experimental group consisted of 19 children (11boys and 8 girls) in the age range of 9-11 years. Thecontrol group consisted of 20 children (12 boys and 8 girls). The subjects in the two groups were matched on their

age and class. They administered Star Counting Test on both groups separately. The results indicated that

meditators have greater attention regulation capacity than non-meditators.

N.Jhansi Rani and P.V.Krishna Rao (2000) investigated the effect of Transcendental Meditation on

attention processes and they tried to verify whether the effects are transitory or stable. The experimental group and

the control group consisted of 50 girls in each group. Adult version of Star Counting Test (SCT) and VictoriaVersion of Stroop Colour and Word Test which measures attention regulation capacity and cognitive flexibility

respectively were used in the study. The results on the SCT indicated that meditators showed greater attention

regulation capacity soon after meditation than non-meditators. It was also found that meditators' attention regulationcapacity was better when tested soon after meditation than when they were tested on a day they did not meditate.

Sabel, B.A. (1980) assigned sixty practitioners of Transcendental Meditation to two treatment groups

randomly. One group meditated for twenty minutes while the other read a text quietly. Both groups were tested

before and after treatment to measure their concentration ability. The tool used was to scan lines of random lettersfor particular symbols and to cross them out. No statistically significant increase in concentration was observed.

Meditation had no measurable short-term effect on concentration and the subjects' experience of meditation was not

correlated with their concentration score.

Valentine, E.R. and Sweet, P.L.G. (1999),compared 19 mediators at a Buddhist Centre to 24 controls. The

meditators were classified as either long-term (more then 24 months of meditation experience) or short-term (lessthan 24 months) meditators. When the meditator groups and the control group were given the Wilkins Counting

Test, a test of sustained attention in which participants must count the number of random interval auditory beeps

they hear in a series.

The meditators all scored significantly higher on the test than non-meditators. Also, the long- termmeditators scored significantly higher than the short term.

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Dave Foris (2005) studied 30 undergraduate psychology students who were randomly assigned either to

meditate once every day over the six week course of the treatment or to a control group that was instructed to sit

quietly. The participants were measured by scores on the Stoops Color and Word Test, at the beginning and at theend of the course. Scores for the meditation group were found to increase at the second test, but they were not

significantly higher than the control group.

Richard J Davidson (1976) and colleagues, Harvard, tested attention and anxiety in four groups of

undergraduates: non meditating controls, beginning meditators, short-term meditators, and long- term meditators.

The authors noticed that there was a definite correlation between experience at meditation and increases in theability to focus and maintain attention. Decreased levels of anxiety were also more discernible among the

experienced meditators.

R. Rangan and Nagendra H. R. and Ramachandra Bhatt (2009)compared the effectiveness of the Moderneducation System (MES) and the Gurukula Education System (GES) in developing sustained attention. Forty nine

boys (11 13 years) were selected from two residential schools. The GES educational program is based around

integrated yoga modules while the MES provides a conventional modern education program. Boys from each school

were matched for age, family atmosphere and socioeconomic status. Sustained attention was assessed using the Six

Letter Cancellation Task (SCLT) at the start and end of an academic year.

The predata of the two groups were compared using an independent samples t test. The Kolmogorov test

of normality showed that the predata were not normally distributed. Hence, nonparametric tests were used in the

analysis. Within groups, the pre-post data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed ranks test, while betweengroups the pre-post data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test.

Both groups of students performed similarly on the pretest at the start of the academic year (predate). Anindependent samples t test found no significant difference between the GES and MES groups. The Wilcoxon

signed ranks test comparing the pre-post values within the groups showed that improvements in both the groups

were significant at p< 0.05. The Mann-Whitney U test used to compare results between the two groups showed a

significant difference between the two groups (p< 0.05).

Conclusion

This paper reviews the studies based on meditation and attention. Many studies were done in abroad and a few studies were donein India. Findings on these studies conclude that meditation practice improved the attention of the meditators.

From the review on the studies based on meditation, it is clear that meditation is helpful for children in improving theirattention, academic performance, intelligence, creativity, personality, memory, learning and reading achievement. So, meditation

practice can be introduced for the practical purpose of developing cognitive functions or as a deeper spiritual practice for greaterawareness.

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DECLARATIONThe declaration of the author for publication of Research Paper in The Indian Journal of Research anvikshiki ISSN 0973-9777 Bi-monthly

International Journal of all Research: We, G. Madhavi K.Durga Research Scholar, & Dr. D. Vasanta, Reader, Faculty of Education, DayalbaghEducational Institute (Dayalbagh) Agra (U.P.) India, the authors of the research paper/ article entitled EFFECT OF MEDITATION ON

ATTENTION: A BRIEF REVIEW declare that, We take the responsibility of the content and material of our paper as we self have written it andalso have read the manuscript of our paper carefully. Also, we hereby give our consent to publish our paper in The Indian Journal Research,

Anvikshiki ISSN 0973-9777 Bi-monthly International Journal of all Research. This article /research paper is our original work and no part of it orits similar version is published or has been sent for publication anywhere else. We authorize the Editorial Board of The Indian Journal of

Research Anvikshiki ISSN 0973-9777 Bi-monthly International Journal of all Research to modify and edit the manuscript. We also give ourconsent to the Editor of The Indian Journal of Research Anvikshiki ISSN 0973-9777 Bi-monthly International Journal of all Research to own thecopyright of our research paper/ article.

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