Females Meditate and Males Play Games: Gender Differences in the Benefits of Meditation Training

分类： 心理学 >> 应用心理学 提交时间： 2019-05-05

Wang, Yuzheng Chen, Yahong Sun, Yuqi Zhang, Ke Wang, Ning Sun, Yabin Lin, Xiaoxiao Wang, Jinyan Luo, Fei

摘要： Although extensive research has shown the benefits of meditation on attention, evidence for the benefits of short-term meditation training remains scarce. In addition, prior studies on these benefits have included considerably more females than males, potentially concealing gender differences in attention training effects. Here we present a longitudinal study including equal-sample male and female participants to explore potential gender differences in short-term meditation training effects on an attentional blink (AB) task. One hundred and sixty-five college students were randomly divided into three groups: meditation training, video game training and control (no training). Participants were asked to complete the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and to rate their level of emotional state and time spent on video game playing per day. Participants then completed a 4-day, 20-min training including meditation training, video game training, or a waiting period (control). After training, participants rated their arousal state and emotional state, and performed the AB task. Results showed that participants who completed either short-term meditation training or video game training showed significant improvement on AB performance. Interestingly, meditation training was more effective in females, while video game training was more effective in males. Meditation training, but not video game training, decreased anxiety scores. The current results indicate that gender plays an important role in the benefits of attention training. It is essential that clinicians take gender into consideration when implementing meditation based therapy.

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