Meditation Training Supports Attention and Performance During High Cognitive Load

Meditation Training Supports Attention and Performance During High Cognitive Load | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Short Report Meditation Training Supports Attention and Performance During High Cognitive Load Simay Selek, Russell Chan, Funda Yildirim This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9014164/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Meditation is increasingly recognized as a structured form of mental training that can induce plastic changes in neural systems supporting attention, cognitive control, and affect regulation. Although prior work links meditation to improved executive functioning, few studies have examined attentional performance under simultaneous cognitive conflict and emotional distraction. This study investigated whether experienced meditators outperform meditation-naive individuals on a modified Stroop task with affective auditory stimuli. Fifty participants (25 meditators, 25 controls) completed a number enumeration Stroop task in which congruent and incongruent trials were presented alongside emotionally salient sounds varying in valence and arousal. Accuracy and response time were analyzed using trial-level mixed-effects models. Results showed that meditators had higher overall accuracy and faster responses than controls. The absence of a Group × Congruency interaction indicates that the advantage was consistent across trial types, suggesting greater baseline attentional stability and more efficient allocation of cognitive resources. Both groups showed slightly higher accuracy on incongruent trials, potentially reflecting increased attentional engagement under conflict or a modest speed–accuracy adjustment. Meditators maintained superior performance despite emotional distraction, supporting the idea that meditation strengthens executive control under cognitive and affective load. These findings highlight the potential of meditation to enhance attentional efficiency and resilience in complex environments. Future longitudinal studies with targeted affective manipulations are needed to clarify the mechanisms underlying these benefits. meditation attentional control Stroop task emotional distraction executive functioning Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9014164","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Short Report","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":614856982,"identity":"b2d2c758-3e1e-4a26-aeac-f74c181b2700","order_by":0,"name":"Simay Selek","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Yeditepe University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Simay","middleName":"","lastName":"Selek","suffix":""},{"id":614856989,"identity":"238a91e0-fb3f-4135-b383-545c73d1c896","order_by":1,"name":"Russell Chan","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Twente","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Russell","middleName":"","lastName":"Chan","suffix":""},{"id":614856994,"identity":"85ffd936-eb7f-428e-86b5-6bfc2c35e1ea","order_by":2,"name":"Funda Yildirim","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA30lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBAC9gYGhgMP2CQY2BiYDyCEH+DRwgNUdyABrIUtgQGkiQcknEBAC0MCG5hpQKQWBh7DAwllFvl8Yme+SX9ss8mzZ29ge0BAi8GBhHMSlm3SudskDralFfPwHGA3wKfFHqQlsU3CgA2sZdvhxB4JoNcI2gLRkvMMqOV/Yo/8A+K1sAG1HADawkBACzNbAcgvQC1pxhZn/yUn9pwBmoBXC3vz5g8fyuoM5GcnP7xRccYusb398DGJD3i0MDBzGKALMTbg0wAE7A8IKBgFo2AUjIIRDwBu50ktE/yR0AAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"University of Twente","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Funda","middleName":"","lastName":"Yildirim","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-03-02 23:08:03","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9014164/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9014164/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":105929629,"identity":"fdf04fb4-9e32-4044-be7b-41a077abc0fd","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-01 13:59:38","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":317079,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ManuscriptMeditationCognitiveLoad03261.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9014164/v1_covered_833fab7d-6730-4a8e-8b87-e801f95595d4.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Meditation Training Supports Attention and Performance During High Cognitive Load","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"meditation, attentional control, Stroop task, emotional distraction, executive functioning","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9014164/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9014164/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eMeditation is increasingly recognized as a structured form of mental training that can induce plastic changes in neural systems supporting attention, cognitive control, and affect regulation. Although prior work links meditation to improved executive functioning, few studies have examined attentional performance under simultaneous cognitive conflict and emotional distraction. This study investigated whether experienced meditators outperform meditation-naive individuals on a modified Stroop task with affective auditory stimuli. Fifty participants (25 meditators, 25 controls) completed a number enumeration Stroop task in which congruent and incongruent trials were presented alongside emotionally salient sounds varying in valence and arousal. Accuracy and response time were analyzed using trial-level mixed-effects models. Results showed that meditators had higher overall accuracy and faster responses than controls. The absence of a Group \u0026times; Congruency interaction indicates that the advantage was consistent across trial types, suggesting greater baseline attentional stability and more efficient allocation of cognitive resources. 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