A randomised active-controlled trial to examine the effects of an online mindfulness intervention on executive control, critical thinking and key thinking dispositions in a university student sample

Chris Noone, Michael J Hogan, Chris Noone, Michael J Hogan

Abstract

Background: Arguments for including mindfulness instruction in higher education have included claims about the benefits of mindfulness practice for critical thinking. While there is theoretical support for this claim, empirical support is limited. The aim of this study was to test this claim by investigating the effects of an online mindfulness intervention on executive function, critical thinking skills and associated thinking dispositions.

Method: Participants recruited from a university were randomly allocated, following screening, to either a mindfulness meditation group or a sham meditation group. Both the researchers and the participants were blind to group allocation. The intervention content for both groups was delivered through the Headspace online application, an application which provides guided meditations to users. Both groups were requested to complete 30 guided mindfulness meditation sessions across a 6 week period. Primary outcome measures assessed mindfulness, executive functioning, critical thinking, actively open-minded thinking and need for cognition. Secondary outcome measures assessed wellbeing, positive and negative affect, and real-world outcomes.

Results: In a series of full-information maximum likelihood analyses, significant increases in mindfulness dispositions and critical thinking scores were observed in both the mindfulness meditation and sham meditation groups. However, no significant effects of group allocation were observed for either primary or secondary measures. Furthermore, mediation analyses testing the indirect effect of group allocation through executive functioning performance did not reveal a significant result and moderation analyses showed that the effect of the intervention did not depend on baseline levels of the key thinking dispositions, actively open-minded thinking and need for cognition.

Conclusion: No evidence was found to suggest that engaging in guided mindfulness practice for 6 weeks using the online intervention method applied in this study improves critical thinking performance. While further research is warranted, claims regarding the benefits of mindfulness practice for critical thinking should be tempered in the meantime.

Trial registration: The study was initially registered in the AEA Social Science Registry before the recruitment was initiated (RCT ID: AEARCTR-0000756; 14/11/2015) and retrospectively registered in the ISRCTN registry ( RCT ID: ISRCTN16588423 ) in line with requirements for publishing the study protocol.

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study received full approval from the National University of Ireland, Galway Research Ethics Committee. Written informed consent was sought from all participants for both their participation and the publication of the results of the research. Participants were reminded of their freedom to withdraw at any time and that their data would be stored securely and anonymously. We had ethical approval to blind participants to their allocated condition and to inform participants that the trial involved comparison of two different forms of meditation rather than fully inform regarding the comparison of mindfulness meditation and a sham meditation at the outset. Full debriefing was carried out following the end of the follow-up data collection. The study was registered in the AEA Social Science Registry before the study was initiated (RCT ID: AEARCTR-0000756) and was registered in the ISRCTN registry following the start of the study to comply with requirements for publishing the study protocol (RCT ID: ISRCTN16588423; [61]).

Consent for publication

No individual data is presented in this article.

Competing interests

This intervention employed materials developed by Headspace Inc. and involved the use of their website and applications. Headspace had no control over the data or input into the design, analysis or reporting of the study but do retain the right to see the results of data analysis. The authors have no other competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
CONSORT [105] flowchart of progress through phases of the current study. Sample size (Incl. flow chart)

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