ArticleCognition2020
Differential benefits of mental training types for attention, compassion, and theory of mind.
Article in Cognition, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
58 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 142 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Effect of Mindfulness-based Programs on Cognitive Function in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Neuropsychology review · 2022Pooled it
- The effect of online mindfulness training on connectedness to oneself, to others and to nature in students.Applied psychology. Health and well-being · 2026Trial
- Effects of brief mindfulness meditation on compassion and personal distress using the socio-affective video task.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- "Stop, pause and take a break": a mixed methods study of the longer-term outcomes of digital emotional wellbeing training for perinatal women.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2024Trial
- Examining the Effects of a Brief, Fully Self-Guided Mindfulness Ecological Momentary Intervention on Empathy and Theory-of-Mind for Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR mental health · 2024Trial
- A randomized trial on differential changes in thought and affect after mindfulness versus dyadic practice indicates phenomenological fingerprints of app-based interventions.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- Boosting Empathy and Compassion Through Mindfulness-Based and Socioemotional Dyadic Practice: Randomized Controlled Trial With App-Delivered Trainings.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Trial
- Investigating the Impact of Guided Imagery on Stress, Brain Functions, and Attention: A Randomized Trial.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Trial
- The effect of loving-kindness meditation on employees' mindfulness, affect, altruism and knowledge hiding.BMC psychology · 2022Trial
- Time-out for well-being: A mixed methods evaluation of attitudes and likelihood to engage in different types of online emotional well-being programmes in the perinatal period.Women's health (London, England)Trial
- When Being Social Is Costly: Empathy's Role for Risk States, Acute Symptoms, and Cumulative Disease Severity of Depression.Journal of clinical psychology · 2026Article
- What to target? Interventions to modulate key mechanisms underlying the trajectories of affective disorders in the transregional Collaborative Research Center 393.Der Nervenarzt · 2026Review
- Harnessing the Neurobiology of Empathy and Compassion to Alleviate Burnout in Neurology.Annals of neurology · 2026Review
- Intervention-induced changes in state mindfulness do not predict trait changes in mindfulness, self-compassion, or perceived stress.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Serum BDNF Increase After 9-Month Contemplative Mental Training Is Associated With Decreased Cortisol Secretion and Increased Dentate Gyrus Volume: Evidence From a Randomized Clinical Trial.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2025Article
- Emotional indicators of university students: a quasi-experimental pilot study with Hatha-Yoga.Revista latino-americana de enfermagem · 2025Article
- Mindfulness in the Medical Learning Environment: An Opportunity for the Struggling Learner?Medical science educator · 2024Article
- Mindfulness training reduces the preference for proenvironmental outcomes.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Article
- 10-Week Trajectories of Candidate Psychological Processes Differentially Predict Mental Health Gains from Online Dyadic versus Mindfulness Interventions: A Randomized Clinical Trial.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Mindfulness- and, more generally, meditation-based interventions increasingly gain popularity, effectively promoting cognitive, affective, and social capacities. It is unclear, however, if different types of practice have the same or specific effects on mental functioning. Here we tested three consecutive three-month training modules aimed at cultivating either attention, socio-affective qualities (such as compassion), or socio-cognitive skills (such as theory of mind), in three training cohorts and a retest control cohort (N = 332). While attentional performance improved most consistently after attention training, compassion increased most after socio-affective training and theory of mind partially improved after socio-cognitive training. These results show that specific mental training practices are needed to induce plasticity in different domains of mental functioning, providing a foundation for evidence-based development of more targeted interventions adapted to the needs of different education, labor, and health settings.
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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.