The Effect of Focused Attention and Open Monitoring Meditation on Creativity in Scientific Researchers
Trial Snapshot
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Status
- Completed
- Sponsor
- Enrollment
- 112
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Divergent thinking
Study Overview
Brief Summary
Purpose of the Study
This clinical trial aims to find out whether a 5-day mindfulness training program can help improve creativity in academic researchers. The study focuses on answering these key questions:
Can focused-attention (FA) and open-monitoring (OM) meditation boost creativity in academic researchers?
Do FA and OM meditation have different effects on creativity?
How does the training affect brain activity (measured by electrical signals)?
Researchers will compare the effects of FA and OM meditation with a control group that listens to audio recordings, to see which method-if any-helps improve creativity.
What Participants Will Do
Join one of three groups: FA meditation, OM meditation, or audio listening (control), and take part in daily practice for 5 days.
Come to the research center for testing three times.
Keep a daily log of how they engage with the training.
Study Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel
- Primary Purpose
- Health Services Research
- Masking
- Single (Participant)
Eligibility Criteria
- Ages
- 18 Years to 65 Years (Adult, Older Adult)
- Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria
- •Currently enrolled graduate students (Master's or PhD) or other research personnel (e.g., postdoctoral fellows, research assistants, or academic researchers).
- •Aged 18 years or older and under 65 years.
- •No current diagnosis of severe mental disorders (e.g., schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder).
- •Not currently taking mood-stabilizing medication (e.g., SSRIs), to avoid confounding effects on mindfulness training and EEG outcomes
Exclusion Criteria
- •Simultaneously participating in other mindfulness-based psychological intervention programs or courses that cannot be paused during the study period.
- •Suicidal ideation or planning reported within the past two weeks.
- •Inability to attend in-person assessments at the laboratory site.
- •Refusal or inability to provide informed consent.
Arms & Interventions
Focused-attention group
Focused-attention training
Intervention: Focused-attention meditation (Behavioral)
Open-monitoring group
Open-monitoring training
Intervention: Open-monitoring meditation (Behavioral)
Control group
Listen to stories about creativity
Intervention: Audio-listening control (Behavioral)
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Divergent thinking
Time Frame: Pre- and post- assessments after a 15-min training at Day1 (before 5-day practice), Day7 (after 5-day practice), and follow-up (1 month after 5-day practice).
Divergent thinking, a key component of creativity, will be assessed using the Alternative Uses Task (AUT). In this test, participants are asked to think of as many different uses as possible for a common object-like a brick, knife, or pillow-within a limited time. The scores including three factors: fluency, flexibility, and originality, which will be gained via TranDis, a semantic distance scoring system based on transformer-based language models.
Convergent thinking
Time Frame: Pre- and post- assessments after a 15-min training at Day1 (before 5-day practice), Day7 (after 5-day practice), and follow-up (1 month after 5-day practice).
Convergent thinking, a key component of creativity, will be measured by the Remote Associate Test (RAT). In this test, participants are given three words and must identify a fourth word that links all three.
EEG
Time Frame: During the whole tests at Day7 (after 5-day practice)
Quantitative EEG power spectral density (PSD) across frequency bands (delta: 0.5-4 Hz, theta: 4-8 Hz, alpha: 8-13 Hz, beta: 13-30 Hz, gamma: \>30 Hz) will be measured at Day 7 (post-intervention). Absolute and relative power in each band will be extracted from resting-state EEG (eyes closed), task-state EEG (15-min mindfulness or control), and task-state EEG during creativity tests, recorded at standardized scalp locations. Changes in spectral power will be used as indicators of neurophysiological responses to the mindfulness training.
Secondary Outcomes
- Mindfulness(Assessments at Day1 (before 5-day practice), Day7 (after 5-day practice), and follow-up (1 month after 5-day practice).)
- Metacognition(At Day1 (before 5-day practice), Day7 (after 5-day practice), and follow-up (1 month after 5-day practice).)
- Attention(Assessments at Day1 (before 5-day practice), Day7 (after 5-day practice).)
- Depression(Assessments at Day1 (before 5-day practice), Day7 (after 5-day practice), and follow-up (1 month after 5-day practice).)
- Anxiety(Pre- and post- assessments after a 15-min training at Day1 (before 5-day practice), Day7 (after 5-day practice), and follow-up (1 month after 5-day practice).)
Investigators
Shulin Chen
Prof.
Zhejiang University