Examining the Impact of Brief Mindfulness Practice on Sustained Attention, Attentional Inhibition and Convergent Thinking

Abstract

There remains little understanding of how short-term mindfulness interventions influence creative cognition. We report an experiment that examined the impact of a brief mindfulness intervention on sustained attention, attentional inhibition and convergent thinking, relative to a control group. Participants (N = 117) were assigned to either a brief mindfulness practice (n = 60) or an active control task (n = 57), before completing: (i) a Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART), to assess sustained attention; (ii) a flanker task, to assess attentional inhibition; and (iii) a convergent thinking task (a series of rebus puzzles). The mindfulness group showed faster reaction times than the control group on the SART, along with fewer task-unrelated mind-wandering thoughts, suggestive of better sustained attention. The mindfulness group also demonstrated improved reaction times and accuracy relative to the control group during the flanker task, indicating enhanced inhibitory control. However, rebus puzzle scores did not differ between groups, indicating that although a brief mindfulness practice enhances sustained attention and attentional inhibition, this improved attentional control does not facilitate convergent thinking in solving rebus puzzles.