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The effects of mindfulness meditation training on multitasking in a high-stress information environment

Authors:

Jacob O. Wobbrock,

Alfred W. Kaszniak,

Marilyn OstergrenAuthors Info & Claims

GI '12: Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2012

Pages 45 - 52

Published: 28 May 2012 Publication History

Abstract

We describe an experiment to determine the effects of meditation training on the multitasking behavior of knowledge workers. Three groups each of 12-15 human resources personnel were tested: (1) those who underwent an 8-week training course on mindfulness-based meditation, (2) those who endured a wait period, were tested, and then underwent the same 8-week training, and (3) those who had 8-weeks of training in body relaxation. We found that only those trained in meditation stayed on tasks longer and made fewer task switches, as well as reporting less negative emotion after task performance, as compared with the other two groups. In addition, both the meditation and the relaxation groups showed improved memory for the tasks they performed.

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3064663.3064752
Akama YLight ABegole BKim JInkpen KWoo W(2015)Towards MindfulnessProceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/2702613.2732498(625-637)Online publication date: 18-Apr-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2702613.2732498
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Published In

cover image Guide Proceedings

GI '12: Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2012

May 2012

224 pages

ISBN:9781450314206

Program Chairs:
Stephen Brooks
Dalhousie University, Canada
,
Kirstie Hawkey
Dalhousie University, Canada

Sponsors

The Canadian Human-Computer Communications Society / Société Canadienne du Dialogue Humaine Machine (CHCCS/SCDHM)

Publisher

Canadian Information Processing Society

Canada

Publication History

Published: 28 May 2012

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Cited By

Suh MBentley FLottridge D(2018)"It's Kind of Boring Looking at Just the Face"Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/32744362:CSCW(1-23)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3274436
Akama YLight ABowen SMival OSmyth MDalsgaard P(2017)Mindfulness and TechnologyProceedings of the 2017 Conference on Designing Interactive Systems10.1145/3064663.3064752(345-355)Online publication date: 10-Jun-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3064663.3064752
Akama YLight ABegole BKim JInkpen KWoo W(2015)Towards MindfulnessProceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/2702613.2732498(625-637)Online publication date: 18-Apr-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2702613.2732498
Ko MYang SLee JHeizmann CJeong JLee UShin DYatani KSong JChung KCosley DForte ACiolfi LMcDonald D(2015)NUGUProceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing10.1145/2675133.2675244(1235-1245)Online publication date: 28-Feb-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2675133.2675244

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