A mind you can count on: validating breath counting as a behavioral measure of mindfulness

Daniel B Levinson, Eli L Stoll, Sonam D Kindy, Hillary L Merry, Richard J Davidson, Daniel B Levinson, Eli L Stoll, Sonam D Kindy, Hillary L Merry, Richard J Davidson

Abstract

Mindfulness practice of present moment awareness promises many benefits, but has eluded rigorous behavioral measurement. To date, research has relied on self-reported mindfulness or heterogeneous mindfulness trainings to infer skillful mindfulness practice and its effects. In four independent studies with over 400 total participants, we present the first construct validation of a behavioral measure of mindfulness, breath counting. We found it was reliable, correlated with self-reported mindfulness, differentiated long-term meditators from age-matched controls, and was distinct from sustained attention and working memory measures. In addition, we employed breath counting to test the nomological network of mindfulness. As theorized, we found skill in breath counting associated with more meta-awareness, less mind wandering, better mood, and greater non-attachment (i.e., less attentional capture by distractors formerly paired with reward). We also found in a randomized online training study that 4 weeks of breath counting training improved mindfulness and decreased mind wandering relative to working memory training and no training controls. Together, these findings provide the first evidence for breath counting as a behavioral measure of mindfulness.

Keywords: attention; meta-awareness; meta-cognition; mind wandering; mindfulness; task-unrelated thought; wanting; working memory training.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Cognitive correlates of breath counting accuracy, and their replication (Insets). (A) The relation across participants between state meta-awareness and counting accuracy. State meta-awareness was indexed as the average response to 12 probes during breath counting asking “How aware were you of where your attention was?” on a 6-point Likert scale ranging from “completely aware” to “completely unaware.” Counting accuracy was indexed as the percent of total task count sets correct. (B) The relation within participants between momentary mind wandering and counting accuracy. During breath counting participants were randomly probed 12 times for their current count and mind wandering status on a 6-point Likert scale ranging from “completely on-task” to “completely off-task.” For each participant, mind wandering scores were averaged separately for moments when on-count vs. off-count, and then entered into group-level “correct” and “miscount” means displayed by bar graph ( ±1 SE). *p < 0.05.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Affective correlates of breath counting accuracy, indexed as the percent of total task count sets correct. (A) The relation across participants between state affect (negative–positive) from the Positive And Negative Affect Scale and counting accuracy. (B) The relation across all participants between attention capture (defined as response time when reward-associated distractors were present minus response time when they were absent) and counting accuracy.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Reliability and known-groups validity of breath counting accuracy, indexed as the percent of total task count sets correct. (A) 1 week test–retest reliability. (B) Long-term vs. age-matched novice meditators’ counting accuracy (±1 SE); the group difference remained significant after controlling for individual differences in sustained attention indexed by sustained attention to response task (SART) commission errors. *p < 0.05.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Breath counting as a method and measure of mindfulness training. (A) Counting accuracy for each training group before and after the training period (± 1 SE), indexed as the percent of total task count sets correct. (B) Change in mind wandering over the course of 20 consecutive weekdays of either breath counting or n-back training. Mind wandering during daily training was calculated from the average of two 25 min training sessions (AM and PM). Mind wandering was measured by a single rating at the end of each session that answered the question “Where was your attention just now?” on a 6-point likert scale ranging from “completely on-task” to “completely off-task.” Error bars represent within participants’ ± 1 SE.

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