Meditation and Job Performance
Need to do some serious multitasking? New research from the University of Washington shows that some training in meditation beforehand could make the work smoother and less stressful.
Work done in 2012 by UW Information School professors David Levy and Jacob Wobbrock suggests that meditation training can help people working with information stay on tasks longer with fewer distractions and improves memory and reduces stress. (Sounds like a prescription drug doesn’t it?) Their paper was published in the May 2012 edition of Proceedings of Graphics Interface.
Wobbrock, a researcher in human-computer interaction, and Levy, a computer scientist, conducted the study together with Marilyn Ostergren, a Information School doctoral candidate, and Alfred Kaszniak, a neuropsychologist at the University of Arizona.
Levy said this about the study, "To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore how meditation might affect multitasking in a realistic work setting."
Three groups of 12-15 human resource managers participated in the study serving as Guinea Pigs. One group received an eight-week course of mindfulness-based meditation training; another received an eight-week training in body relaxation. Members of the third group acted as the control. They received no training but after eight weeks were given the same training as the first group.
The participants were given a “stress” test before and after each 8-week period. They were tested for their skills in multitasking where they were asked to use email, calendars, instant-messaging, telephone and word-processing tools to perform common office tasks before and after each eight-week period. Researchers measured the participants' speed, accuracy and the extent to which they switched tasks. The participants' self-reported levels of stress and memory while performing the tasks were also noted.
The results were significant: The meditation group reported lower levels of stress during the multitasking test while those in the control group and those who received only relaxation training did not. When the control group was given meditation training it reported they experienced lower stress during the test just as the first meditation group did. The meditation training seemed to help participants concentrate longer without being distracted. Those who meditated beforehand spent more time on tasks and switched tasks less often. At the same time, they were able to complete their assigned tasks in the same time as the other groups.
No such change occurred with either group who did the body relaxation training only, or with the control group. After the control group's members underwent meditation training they too spent longer on their tasks with less task switching and no overall increase in job completion time just as the other meditation group.
Both the meditators and those trained in relaxation techniques displayed improved memory for the tasks they were performing. The control group did not improve until it too underwent the meditation training.
Wobbrock said,"Many research efforts at the human-technology boundary have attempted to create technologies that augment human abilities. This meditation work is unusual in that it attempts to augment human abilities not through technology but because of technology — because of the demands technology places on us and our need to cope with those demands."
Levy added to this, "We are encouraged by these first results. While there is increasing scientific evidence that certain forms of meditation increase concentration and reduce emotional volatility and stress, until now there has been little direct evidence that meditation may impart such benefits for those in stressful, information-intensive environments."
Information was reported by the University of Washington (2012, June 14). Mindful multitasking: Meditation first can calm stress, aid concentration. ScienceDaily.]
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