A new study has revealed that even brief periods of deep meditation, as short as five minutes, can induce a stronger ability to learn among individuals, while also making them more open to experiencing new things and making informed decisions.
Scientists were previously able to establish a strong link between mindfulness meditation and improvement in cognitive flexibility, emotional regulation, and stress management. However, they wanted to understand whether or not a brief period of mindfulness meditation can produce desired results.
“Our interest in this topic was driven by the recognition of mindfulness meditation’s remarkably potent influence on human cognition and its capacity to modify deeply rooted social biases,” explained study author Marius Golubickis, a lecturer at the University of Aberdeen and head of the Aberdeen Computational Social Cognition Lab.
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“The revelation that even brief, 5-minute meditation sessions can exert substantial impacts highlights the practicality and accessibility of these practices for people leading busy lives. This exploration into the simplicity and efficiency of mindfulness meditation opens fascinating avenues for enhancing learning and personal development, highlighting its vital role in our cognitive toolkit,” Golubickis was quoted as saying by Psypost.
Methodology
The researchers gathered a group of 60 people who had little or no experience with meditation. These participants came from various educational backgrounds, ranging from high school to PhD degrees. They were randomly split into two groups with one practicing mindfulness meditation.
The mindfulness group followed a 5-minute guided meditation focusing on mindful breathing, aimed at increasing awareness of the present moment without judgment. They were guided to pay attention to their breath and gently bring their focus back when distracted. Meanwhile, the other group worked on a neutral task involving Chinese puzzles (Tangram).
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After these activities, everyone took part in the main task: a Probabilistic Selection Task. This simulated decision-making in uncertain situations, where participants had to pick between pairs of symbols based on feedback about their accuracy.
Results
Golubickis and the team discovered that those who practised mindfulness meditation showed an improved ability to learn from positive feedback during uncertain decision-making compared to the other group.
This suggests that mindfulness meditation can help individuals better process and use new information, improving their decision-making in uncertain situations.
NOTE – This article was originally published in wionews and can be viewed here
Tags: #Breathing, #emotionalregulation, #fitness, #getgreengetgrowing, #gngagritech, #greenstories, #health, #learningability, #meditation, #mindfulness, #scientists, #skills, #stressmanagement
