Is breath counting a valid measure of mindfulness?
Tracking breath counts offers an objective, reliable behavioral measure of mindfulness that avoids the biases of self-report questionnaires.
Source
A mind you can count on: validating breath counting as a behavioral measure of mindfulness
What they did
Across multiple experiments, researchers evaluated whether counting breaths from 1 to 9 could serve as a behavioral measure of mindfulness. In Study 1, participants completed an 18-minute breath counting task. Study 3 compared 14 long-term meditators to 25 novices on breath counting accuracy. In Study 4, participants completed a 4-week training to see if breath counting selectively improves with training.
What they found
Breath counting accuracy correlated with self-reported trait mindfulness (r = 0.20 on the MAAS and r = 0.21 on the FFMQ). Long-term meditators demonstrated significantly higher accuracy than novices, suggesting the task captures mindfulness expertise. Crucially, 4 weeks of breath counting training significantly improved accuracy and trait mindfulness while reducing mind wandering, whereas working memory training did not.
The limits
What it doesn't show
While promising, the breath counting task is not process pure, meaning factors other than mindfulness likely influence accuracy. The study also had a relatively small sample for its randomized training trial, with only 22 participants completing the breath training and 20 completing the working memory training. Additionally, more research is needed to determine how self-judgment and negative feedback about counting errors might skew performance.
Key terms
- Meta-awareness
- The explicit recognition of the current contents of one's own consciousness.
- Mind wandering
- A state where attention drifts away from the primary task toward task-unrelated thoughts.
- Sustained attention
- The ability to maintain focus on a specific, continuous task or stimulus over time.
- Construct validity
- The degree to which a test or measure accurately assesses the specific psychological concept it claims to measure.
- Discriminant validity
- A subtype of construct validity that shows a test does not correlate strongly with measures of theoretically unrelated concepts.
- Non-attachment
- A psychological state characterized by a reduced influence of wanting or craving.
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Quiz yourself
According to the literature cited in the paper, approximately what percentage of daily life is spent mind wandering?
Common questions
Why is a behavioral measure of mindfulness better than self-report questionnaires?
Behavioral measures prevent participants from falsifying or inflating their mindfulness skills, bypassing retrospective memory distortions and the pressure to appear mindful on self-report surveys.
Does breath counting require participants to suppress all task-unrelated thoughts?
No, mindfulness does not mean having zero distractions; rather, it involves recognizing when the mind has wandered and gently returning attention to the present moment without judgment.
How does breath counting differ from standard working memory tests?
While working memory tasks require manipulating and holding information in mind, breath counting focuses on directly perceiving a physical sensation in the present moment and monitoring awareness of distractions.
Can practicing breath counting actually train mindfulness?
Yes, the study showed that participants who completed weeks of daily breath counting training significantly improved both their counting accuracy and their self-reported trait mindfulness.
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