It is noteworthy that little research has been conducted on mental depletion. The online Psychology Dictionary (2011) defines depletion as a form of exhaustion. Thus, participants engaging in the depletion condition would be using deeper cognitive processes. Due to minimal research, it’s believed that depletion will not have an effect on inattentional blindness, nor will the interaction of mindfulness and mental depletion influence the results of inattentional blindness. Our research goal is to revive and engage studies of mental depletion and mindfulness with current research, and to then use these results to further understand the influences on inattentional blindness.
Method
Design
The independent variables were the level of mindfulness and the level of depletion. The dependent variable was the percentage of how many participants noticed the red cross, and which condition they were in. All participants were randomly allocated to two of the four conditions (no depletion/mindfulness, no depletion/no mindfulness, depletion/mindfulness or depletion/no mindfulness). Participants were asked to write an easy or hard essay, followed by listening to a tape recording – depending on which condition, different instructions were given (See Materials). Finally participants were asked to complete an inattentional blindness task. These were then collected and results were measured in order to analyse the number of participants who saw the red cross in the inattentional blindness task, according to what condition they were in (dependent variable).
Participants
The study consisted of 808 (576 female, mean age 19.90, SD = 3.21) first year undergraduate Psychology 1B students from the University of New South Wales (UNSW). All participants were organized in predetermined tutorial groups, which were then randomly assigned two of the four conditions. Participants did not receive any benefits from participating in this research although it later formed part of their assessment. Those excluded where late attenders and absentees.
Materials
Level of depletion was measured through a manipulation of tasks. Students in the no depletion condition were asked to write an essay describing the buildings, departments and layout of the UNSW campus as if it was a ‘virtual tour’. In the depletion condition, students were given the same instructions, to describe the UNSW campus, however, they were also instructed to write this essay without using words that contained the letters ‘A’ or ‘N’ (e.g. And, Airplane).
Level of mindfulness was also measured by a manipulation of tasks. Students in the mindfulness condition were instructed to either listen to a 10-mintue tape recording where they contemplated the sultana’s texture and taste, approximately 5 times. Participants were asked, for example, to rub the sultana gently across their lips, noticing how it feel, roll it around slowly with their tongue, noticing how it feels in their mouth (Heppner et. al., 2008). Students in the no mindfulness condition sat through a 10-minute recording about the facts of sultanas, without tasting or contemplating present sultanas.
After the manipulation, the dependent variable was measured using an inattentional blindness test. This was a computer task asking the participants to count how many times the white objects bounced against the sides of the screen. The key result measured was how many students noticed the red shape moving across the screen during the test, and which condition they were in.
Procedure
This experiment entailed the participants to engage in a writing task, which was either easy (no depletion condition) or difficult (depletion condition). Students then listened to a tape recording where they either had to contemplate sultanas by texture and eat them slowly considering its taste (mindfulness condition) or they heard a recording on the facts of sultanas (no mindfulness condition). Finally, participants engaged in an inattentional blindness task where they were instructed to count the number of times the white objects bounced off the edges of the screen, and were then asked if they had seen an unexpected object in the computer task. They were then shown various pictures of random objects, and asked to which of the objects was the one seen.
Results
The experiments focus was to investigate the individual influences of mindfulness and mental depletion on inattentional blindness, and to investigate if their interaction influenced results on inattentional blindness. After conducting these experiments and anaylsing data, we learnt that results were consistent with all hypotheses. There were no differences between the depletion and no depletion condition on inattentional blindness, F(1,806) = 1.17, p>.05. Although, there was a significant difference in results between the participants who were in the mindfulness condition and those who were not, F(1,806) = 5.62, p<.05. Even though, findings were consistent with our last hypothesis as it was found that there is no interaction between mindfulness and depletion on inattentional blindness, F(1,806) = 0.91, p>.05 (refer to Table 1).
Table 1.
Percentage of participants who noticed the red cross in the inattentional blindness task, according to condition
*Note. % = Percentage
Discussion
Results were consistent with all hypotheses, that mindfulness has an influence on inattentional blindness; mental depletion has no suggestive effect on inattentional blindness, and the interaction of both variables has no significant influence on inattentional blindness. As seen in Table 1, those in the mindfulness condition had higher results in the inattentional blindness task, than those in the alternate condition.
These outcomes are consistent with Simons and Chabris (1999) study of inattentional blindness as a group of participants failed to notice the red cross. In saying this, there was an increased noticeability of the red cross, as suggested by Langer’s (1989) model of cognitive mindfulness, from those participants in the mindfulness condition. This is significant evidence that mindfulness influences inattentional blindness. Mental depletion was shown to have no affect on inattentional blindness, although it would be an interesting issue to investigate further, due to the lack of prior research.
Although results are showing that mindfulness increases the noticeability of an unexpected object, it is limiting as participants may have previously participated in an inattentional blindness test, therefore were actively looking for an unexpected object. Before further research is investigated in this area, it would be essential to ask the participants after they engaged in the inattentional blindness task, if they had partook in a similar task previously. This will increase the results validity and reliability for a wider generalisation.
References
Chiesa, A., Calati, R., & Serretti, A. (2011). Does mindfulness training improve cognitive abilities? A
systematic review of neuropsychological findings. Clinical Psychology Review, 31, 449-464.
Depletion. (2011) Retrieved from The Dictionary of Psychology web site:
http://dictionarypsychology.com/index.php?a=list&d=Dictionary%20of%20psychology&p=3&w
Heppner, W. L. Kernis, M. H., Lakey, C. E., Campbell, W. K., Goldman, B. M., Davis, P. J., Cascio, E. V., (2008). Mindfulness as a means of reducing aggressive behavior: Dispositional andsituational evidence. Aggressive Behaviour, 34(5), 486-496. Doi:10.1002/ab.20258 342MD
Langer, E. J. (2000) Mindful learning. Current directions in psychological science 9 (6), 220- 223.
Langer, E. (1989). Mindfulness. MA: Addison Wesley.
Simons, D. J., & Chabris, C. F. (1999). Gorillas in our midst: Sustained inattentional blindness for
dynamic events. Perception, 28, 1059-1074.
