A short mindfulness induction might increase women's mental rotation performance
1Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, 93053 Regensburg, Germany.
Consciousness and Cognition
|July 25, 2024
Summary
Mindfulness training improved mental rotation task performance differently for men and women. Women showed greater benefits from mindfulness, while men performed better with the control condition, indicating gender-specific effects.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Mindfulness Studies
Background:
- Chronometric mental rotation is a key cognitive function.
- Embodied mindfulness interventions are increasingly explored for cognitive enhancement.
- Understanding gender differences in cognitive task performance is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of an embodied mindfulness treatment on mental rotation.
- To examine how mindfulness affects reaction time and accuracy in mental rotation tasks.
- To explore potential gender-specific effects of mindfulness on cognitive performance.
Main Methods:
- Participants: 44 women, 47 men, randomly assigned to mindfulness or control groups.
- Task: Chronometric mental rotation using cube figures (150 trials per set).
- Analysis: Linear mixed models analyzing reaction time, accuracy, and subjective cognitive effort, with factors including time, mindfulness, angular disparity, and gender.
Main Results:
- A significant three-way interaction found between pre-post testing, mindfulness, and gender for reaction times.
- Women may benefit more from mindfulness induction compared to the control condition.
- Men may benefit more from the control condition than the mindfulness induction.
- Subjective cognitive effort was perceived similarly by both genders.
Conclusions:
- Embodied mindfulness shows differential effects on mental rotation performance based on gender.
- Mindfulness interventions could be tailored to leverage gender-specific cognitive responses.
- Further research is needed to elucidate the mechanisms behind these gender differences.
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