The Influence of Mindfulness Meditation Retreat on Attention to Internal Experience
Condition: Attention Impaired; Cognitive Change; Mental Health Issue
Study type: Observational

Summary: 
      Although attention is thought to have a definitive functional role in mindfulness meditation
      training and its salutary mechanisms of action, extant empirical evidence is mixed and
      limited. In the proposed study, we propose to test whether 6 to 7-days mindfulness meditation
      retreats (N=90), relative to a wait-list control condition (N=45), will impact internal
      attentional processes or attention to internal experience (e.g., thoughts and bodily
      sensations); and whether these internal attentional change processes predict salutary
      outcomes of mindfulness meditation retreats. Participants will complete tasks designed to
      measure attention to internal experience before and then immediately following the retreat,
      as well as self-report measures of salutary outcomes before and 2-weeks post-retreat. Matched
      controls will complete the tasks at parallel time-points in the lab.
    

Detailed description: 
      Broadly, the investigators first aim is to assess whether mindfulness meditation retreat will
      yield significant improvement at post-relative to pre-retreat, compared to matched control,
      in each of these internal attentional processes: (i) enhanced ability to disengage from
      negative self-referential thoughts; (ii) reduced selection bias to negative self-referential
      thoughts; (iii) enhanced interoceptive attention and sensibility to a broader range of
      locations, intensities and hedonic tones of bodily sensations in response to negative and
      neutral self-referential thoughts; as well as (iv) enhanced mindful awareness during
      mindfulness meditation as expressed in the objects and temporal dynamics of mindful
      awareness. Second, the investigators will assess whether each of the aforementioned internal
      attentional change processes from pre- to post-retreat, will predict change from pre- to
      2-weeks post-retreat in mindful awareness in daily living, mindfulness-related processes
      (e.g., decentering), and mental health. Third, investigators will assess whether previous
      meditation experience moderates these effects.
    

Intervention name(s): Mindfulness meditation retreat
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): 6 to 7-days mindfulness retreat (Vipassana/insight meditation). The retreats are held in silence and led by senior teachers with many years of experience in teaching meditation. The focus of the retreat is the practice of mindfulness meditation while sitting and walking. Retreats include focused attention and open monitoring mindfulness meditation practices. Each retreat has a similar practice schedule thus the amount and nature of formal practice is mostly the same.
Observational model: Case-Control
Time perspective: Prospective
Sampling method: Non-Probability Sample
Study population: 
        Adults from the general population and the local community of meditation practitioners.
      
Keywords: Internal attention; Interoceptive attention; Meditation; Mindfulness; Mindfulness Retreat