健康与遗传心理学研究室知识库

在冥想练习时，人们常常通过对呼吸、声音、画面、词句或其它固定对象的持续注意，培养一种对此时此刻不判断的、有意识的特殊注意状态。这种特殊的注意状态被认为是冥想练习产生各种效果的核心机制。然而尽管已有很多研究表明冥想训练可以改善个体的注意功能，但目前还少有研究关注对某次冥想练习过程中注意状态的评估。本研究使用经验取样法测量了冥想新手在 2 次正念冥想练习中主观报告的注意稳定性和觉知程度，同时记录了他们练习时的呼吸频率。另外，使用正念五因素问卷得分（Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire  ，FFMQ）和划消测验，测评个体的正念特质水平和注意的维持和选择功能。通过对状态指标和 FFMQ问卷得分及划消测验成绩的相关分析和回归分析，考察了用注意稳定性、觉知程度和呼吸频率评估个体某次练习中注意状态的可行性。同时，本研究还探索了用经验取样法进行测量时，探测刺激出现的频率对状态指标效度的影响。研究结果表明：1）在18 分钟的正念冥想练习中，当要求个体每隔 2分钟或 3 分钟左右进行一次报告时，测得的注意稳定性和觉知程度与他们的 FFMQ得分显著正相关。2）只有在 2 分钟左右进行一次报告的情况下，测得的觉知程度与个体的 FFMQ得分、划消测验成绩显著正相关。3）2 分钟报告一次时，测得的注意稳定性和觉知程度可以显著预测练习结束后划消测验的成绩。综上可得，使用经验取样法对冥想练习中的注意状态进行测量时，在探测刺激每隔 2 分钟左右出现一次的条件下，测得的注意稳定性和觉知程度可以较准确地反应新手在正念冥想练习中的注意状态， 并显著预测其练习之后的注意功能。 对个体在某次冥想练习过程中状态指标的实时测量，一方面使通过考察个体干次练习之间的动态变化过程，来研究冥想练习产生效果的机制称为可能。另一方面，也为研究个体差异在冥想练习中的表现提供了新的途径。

When people practice focused meditation, they usually attend to a chosen sensory or
mental experience, such as breath, image, sound, word or sentence. By doing this, people can cultivate a special attention state, a state that  someone intentionally pay attention to the present moment by moment with a nonjudgmental attitude. This special attention state is considered as the main mechanism of many positive effects of meditation practice. Although lots of researches indicated that years or weeks of meditation practice could improve one’s attention and other cognitive function, few studies pay attention to assess the attention state during one practice session. The present study measured the subjective reported attention stability and awareness of meditation novices during two 18 minutes mindfulness meditation practice using the experience sampling method. Besides, the respiratory rates were also recorded. In addition, Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) was used to stand for the mindfulness meditation trait and the performance of the digit cancellation test was used to stand for the level of sustained and selective attention. To examine validities of the three state indexes of meditation state, correlation analysis and linear regression analysis are conducted. What’s more we also explored whether the validities of indexes are influenced by the sampling probe frequency. Our results showed that 1) there were significantly positive correlations between attention stability and FFMQ when the variables were tested using higher probe frequency (approximately every 2min or 3min once) but not lower frequency (approximately every 4min once); 2) only when the it was tested every 2min, both of the FFMQ and performance of cancellation test can have significantly positive correlations with awareness; 3) The linear regression analysis indicated that only when the awareness and attention were measured every 2min that the indexes can significantly  predict  performance of the cancellation test which was conducted immediately after the second practice session. Take all the results together we can get a conclusion that when the online test of attention state during one mindfulness meditation practice was tested with a sampling probe appearing approximately every 2 min, the variables can reflect the mindfulness trait of meditation novices and their sustained and selective attention level. More importantly, the practice quality, which is reflected through the subjective report attention stability and awareness, can predict the performance of the attention test that conducted immediately after the practice. The method and corresponding results in the present study provide a possible way to explore changes between different meditation practice sessions and the possible influence of individual difference on meditation process.