“Mind the trap”: Mindfulness
Practice Associated with
Reduced Cognitive Rigidity
Jonathan Greenberg
Under the supervision of Prof. Nachshon Meiran
Learning from experience is often crucial for
our adaptive functioning and survival
May experience hinder adaptive responding?
Rigidity
“…The tendency to form and perseverate in
the use of mental and behavioral sets”
(Schultz & Searman, 2002, pp. 1)
Rigidity may play a key role in
psychopathology:







Suicidal Ideation
Depression
Mania
Eating disorders
OCD
Alcoholism
ADHD
A method for decreasing such rigidity may be of
value regarding treatment of these and other
conditions
Mindfulness Practice

“Paying attention in a particular way: on purpose,
in the present moment and non-judgmentally”
(Kabat-Zinn, 1994)
Mindfulness associated with
alleviation of symptoms in:







Suicidal tendencies
Depression
Mania
Eating disorders
OCD
Alcoholism
ADHD






Psoriasis
PTSD
Chronic pain
Cancer
Heart desease
GAD
Mindfulness and cognitive rigidity:



Stroop Task
Nonsensical sentence completion (Hayling task)
Verbal fluency
The present study
Rigidity
Mindfulness
practice
Overcoming recently formed habits

Hypothesis: Mindfulness meditators will exhibit
lower levels of rigidity than non-meditators, due
to more of a “Beginners mind”.
Participants

12 Long term mindfulness meditators



9.32 years of practice on average
Practicing 4 hours a week on average
13 “Pre-meditators”


Non-meditators who are registered for their 1st mindfulness
retreat
Equivalent in age, academic degree, academic abilities (PET
score)
Eisntellung water jar task:

“Please solve the following problems. Try to
solve rather quickly, yet make sure you use the
shortest and simplest solution”.
(Luchins, 1942)
Eisntellung water jar task






6 “set” trials
3 “critical” or “trap” trials
2 “extinction” trials
Rigidity score - 1 point for each:
Long solution on a “critical” or “extinction” trial
“Extinction” trial solved in more than 90 seconds

RESULTS
Covariate means:
Age: 33.23077
Rigidity Scores
(p<0.01)
4.5
4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
Rigidity scores
1.0
0.5
0.0
-0.5
Pre-Meditators
Long term meditators
Group


Long term meditation associated with reduced
rigidity
Willing and able to let go of habits, and utilize
alternatives when appropriate
Mindfulness and treatment of
psychiatric symptoms

Many conditions characterized by a stereotyped
or undifferentiated view of the environment
“Things always go wrong”’
 “There is no other way”
 “The world is dangerous, I must always be alert and
prepared”


Need for “un-learning” thought patterns and
responses
Current Work





Randomized experimental study design
8 week mindfulness intervention
Participators vs. waiting list
Pre-intervention: Alphabet maze
Post-intervention: Water Jar task
Alphabet maze
(Cowen, Wiener, & Hess, 1953)
Thanks:


Prof. Nachchson Meiran
Thank you for listening
Self reported measures
Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory Scores
Mindfulness Attention and Awareness Scale Scores
Current ef f ect: F(1, 16)=7.7034, p=.01351
Current ef f ect: F(1, 17)=10.596, p=.00466
4.1
44
4.0
42
3.9
3.8
MAAS Score
FMI Score
40
38
36
34
3.7
3.6
3.5
3.4
3.3
3.2
32
3.1
3.0
30
Pre-Meditators
Meditators
Group
Pre-Meditators
Meditators
Group
C orrelat ions (Real Luc hins)
Marked correlat ions are s ignif icant at p < . 05000
N =18 (C as ewise delet ion of mis s ing dat a)
Variable
Means St d. Dev . R ‫ן‬gid ity Sco re FMI Score MAAS Sc ore
R igidity Sc ore 1.61111 1.851514
1.000000 -0. 011909
-0. 145565
FMI Score
37. 27778 8.151547
-0. 011909 1.000000
0.660686
MAAS Sc ore
3.50333 0.750075
-0. 145565 0.660686
1.000000
Hayling Task
“Please complete the sentence with an unrelated,
nonsensical word as quickly as possible”:
“The captain decided to stay with the sinking…”

Paperclip?
(e.g Heeren,Van Broeck, & Philippot, 2009)
Stroop Task:
“Please name the colour of the ink”:
Congruent Condition
Green
Yellow
Red
Blue
(Moore, & Malinowski, 2009)
Incongruent Condition
Green
Yellow
Red
Blue
Verbal Fluency
“Say as many words as you can think of beginning
with the letters F, A, and S”
(e.g Zeidan, et al, 2010; Heeren,Van Broeck, & Philippot, 2009)
Not Forming sets, or better in overcoming them?
Current ef f ect: F(1, 17)=2.0780, p=.16760
1.05E5
1E5
95000
Solving Time
90000
85000
80000
75000
70000
65000
60000
55000
50000
45000
1st set RT
last set RT
Set Trial Position
Pre-meditators
Meditators