The Effect of a Brief Mindfulness Practice on Perceived Stress and Sustained Attention: Does Priming Matter?

A brief mindfulness practice reduced perceived stress and improved sustained attention in undergraduates. Two hundred twenty students were randomly assigned to a control condition, a meditation condition, or a priming-plus-meditation condition. Both meditation groups showed decreased stress and fewer errors of omission on a sustained attention task compared to controls. Only the priming-plus-meditation group outperformed controls on total correct responses and errors of commission. Reaction time variability did not differ between groups. Priming about mindfulness benefits may enhance some attention outcomes beyond meditation alone.

Study at a glance

Abstract

ObjectivesThe objective of the current study was to investigate the effect of a brief mindfulness practice on perceived stress and sustained attention, and to determine whether priming the benefits of mindfulness meditation enhances this effect.MethodsTwo hundred and twenty undergraduate students were randomly assigned to a control condition (CC), a meditation condition (MC), or a priming + meditation condition (PMC). Baseline and post-treatment measures included subjective stress ratings on a visual analog scale (VAS) and performance on a Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART), determined by reaction time coefficient of variability (RTCV) and three measures of accuracy: correct responses, errors of commission, and errors of omission.ResultsRepeated measures analyses revealed that both the MC and the PMC displayed a decline in perceived stress relative to the CC. Analyses further revelated that the MC and PMC displayed fewer errors of omission relative to the CC. However, only the PMC displayed better performance relative to the CC with respect to total correct response and errors of commission. There were no significant between-group differences for RTCV.ConclusionsThese findings are novel and provide a foundation to further investigate the effect of priming on mindfulness engagement and its potential benefits.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12671-022-01913-8.