Trial reportPloS one2014
No sustained attention differences in a longitudinal randomized trial comparing mindfulness based stress reduction versus active control.
Trial report in PloS one, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 38 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
The Effects of Mindfulness Training on Pain Regulation, Negative Affect, Attention, and Social Stress.
Meditation Versus Education for Improving Depression in Chronic Pain, a Randomized Controlled Trial
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Consumer-Grade Neurofeedback With Mindfulness Meditation: Meta-Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Pooled it
- The Effect of Mindfulness-based Programs on Cognitive Function in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Neuropsychology review · 2022Pooled it
- Mindfulness-based programmes for mental health promotion in adults in nonclinical settings: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.PLoS medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Mindfulness Meditation for Primary Headache Pain: A Meta-Analysis.Chinese medical journal · 2018Pooled it
- Pooled it
- A Multi-Site, Randomized, Parallel-Group, Controlled Trial of Virtually-Delivered Sahaj Samadhi Meditation for the Management of Moderate Depressive Symptoms in Chronic Pain.Journal of pain research · 2025Trial
- A pilot randomized controlled trial of mindfulness-based stress reduction for caregivers of family members with dementia.Aging & mental health · 2016Trial
- Trial
- Effects of meditation practice on spontaneous eyeblink rate.Psychophysiology · 2016Trial
- A Randomized Controlled Trial of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Treatment-Resistant Depression.Psychotherapy and psychosomatics · 2016Trial
- Limited Validity of Breath-Counting as a Measure of Mindfulness in Ruminative Adolescents.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
- Age differences in motivation drive performance during the sustained attention to response task.PloS one · 2025Article
- Restorativeness mediates the effect of a brief virtual reality mindfulness exposure with a multi-ethnic group in a natural environment on global identity salience: a pilot study with adolescents.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Dispositional mindfulness: Dissociable affective and cognitive processes.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2024Article
- Effectiveness of an online short-term audio-based mindfulness program on negative emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic: Latent growth curve analyses of anxiety and moderated mediation effects of anxiety between mindfulness and negative affect.Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) · 2022Article
- A Mini-Review of Work Stress and Mindfulness: A Neuropsychological Point of View.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Review
- Attention and Default Mode Network Assessments of Meditation Experience during Active Cognition and Rest.Brain sciences · 2021Article
- Pilot Study of Mindfulness Training on the Self-Awareness of Motor Symptoms in Parkinson's Disease - A Randomized Controlled Trial.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- The Effects of Brief Mindfulness Training on Attentional Processes: Mindfulness Increases Prepulse Facilitation but Not Prepulse Inhibition.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- The plasticity of well-being: A training-based framework for the cultivation of human flourishing.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is a secular form of meditation training. The vast majority of the extant literature investigating the health effects of mindfulness interventions relies on wait-list control comparisons. Previous studies have found that meditation training over several months is associated with improvements in cognitive control and attention. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL
findingsWe used a visual continuous performance task (CPT) to test the effects of eight weeks of mindfulness training on sustained attention by comparing MBSR to the Health Enhancement Program (HEP), a structurally equivalent, active control condition in a randomized, longitudinal design (ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01301105) focusing on a non-clinical population typical of MBSR participants. Researchers were blind to group assignment. 63 community participants were randomized to either MBSR (n = 31) or HEP (n = 32). CPT analyses were conducted on 29 MBSR participants and 25 HEP participants. We predicted that MBSR would improve visual discrimination ability and sustained attention over time on the CPT compared to HEP, with more home practice associated with greater improvements. Our hypotheses were not confirmed but we did find some evidence for improved visual discrimination similar to effects in partial replication of other research. Our study had sufficient power to demonstrate that intervention groups do not differ in their improvement over time in sustained attention performance. One of our primary predictions concerning the effects of intervention on attentional fatigue was significant but not interpretable.
conclusionsAttentional sensitivity is not affected by mindfulness practice as taught in MBSR, but it is unclear whether mindfulness might positively affect another aspect of attention, vigilance. These results also highlight the relevant procedural modifications required by future research to correctly investigate the role of sustained attention in similar samples.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01301105.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.