Personalizing the Training of Attention: Predicting Effectiveness of Meditation using Traits and Abilities

Precision medicine involves tailoring interventions to the individual, but superior health outcomes are only possible if individuals follow the advice of healthcare professionals. Current meditation interventions have high drop-out rates despite the great benefits continued practice offers. Secular meditation interventions have heretofore used somatosensory objects as the anchor of attention, but other less-studied modalities may be preferred by certain individuals. Investigating the influence of individual differences on preference of meditation modality is the purpose of this research. In this study I use personality traits and sensory discriminability to predict preferences among three modalities of meditation anchor: breath, phrase, and image. Results indicate that sensory discriminability predicts preference, as do incoming bias and motivation. These results imply multiple anchor modalities should be made accessible and that new meditators should be involved in anchor-selection. This study begins a line of research into personalizing meditation instruction and will allow more precise individualized recommendations.

精准医学包括根据个体情况制定干预措施，但只有当个体遵循医疗专业人员的建议时，才可能有更好的健康结果。目前的冥想干预措施尽管持续练习有很大益处，但退出率很高。到目前为止，世俗的冥想干预措施一直将躯体感觉对象用作注意力的锚定点，但某些个体可能更喜欢其他研究较少的模式。本研究的目的是调查个体差异对冥想模式偏好的影响。在这项研究中，我使用人格特质和感官辨别能力来预测三种冥想锚定点模式（呼吸、语句和意象）之间的偏好。结果表明，感官辨别能力以及先入为主的偏向和动机都能预测偏好。这些结果意味着应该提供多种锚定模式，并且应该让新的冥想者参与锚定点的选择。这项研究开启了个性化冥想指导的研究方向，并将允许更精准的个体化建议。