Attention Training

The purpose of this study is to understand whether attention training is effective in moderating mind wandering.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Attention
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: breath attention training; Behavioral: working memory attention training

Detailed Description

Our subjective worlds are built from those things in our internal and external environments that capture our attention. Environments can be ambiguous with respect to which objects are most important for our attention, and the characteristics of stimuli that allow them to dominate attention are thus of great interest. Self-relevant objects, such as internally generated experience (e.g. thought), may receive substantial attention, but research on this dimension has been hampered by the difficulty of measuring such objects experimentally. The proposed study seeks to make headway in this area using several behavioral (accuracy, response time, response pattern) measures, with the hypothesis that internally generated experience will vie for attention in a way reflected by behavior. Such research will extend previous work the investigators' lab has done studying stimulus parameters that influence attention, and as a whole may present a more complete picture of how objects and attention interact to shape our worlds.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 94
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Wisconsin
    • Madison, Wisconsin, United States, 53706
      • University of Wisconsin Brogden Psychology Building

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Exclusion Criteria:

• Non-English speakers

Inclusion Criteria:

• Must be able to use a computer

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: no training
Experimental: breath attention training	Behavioral: breath attention training; 4 week training
Active Comparator: working memory attention training	Behavioral: working memory attention training; 4 week training

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
change in mind wandering frequency after intervention	mind wandering will be assessed with self-report to intermittent queries such as "just now, was your attention on the present task or unrelated concerns?" Frequency of endorsement will serve as a measure of frequency of mind wandering (ranging in units from 0 - 100% of the time).	before intervention and up to 100 weeks later

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Wisconsin, Madison
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Richard Davidson, PhD, University Wisconsin Madison

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: February 1, 2012
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 1, 2012
• Study Completion (Actual): November 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 13, 2012
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 23, 2012
• First Posted (Estimate): January 26, 2012

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): June 5, 2014
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 3, 2014
• Last Verified: June 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: SE-2011-0123