The Impacts of Mindfulness Meditation and Physiological Arousal on Test Performance in College-Aged Individuals
Crystal Burke
Factors Impacting Test Performance
The Anxiety of Test Performance
Mindfulness
- Construct Definition
- Mindfulness techniques come in many forms to establish a relaxed mental state in individuals. For this experiment, we chose to use Mindfulness Meditation in the form of breathing techniques.
- Operational Definition
- To manipulate mindfulness, participants watched a one-minute mindfulness meditation video and were instructed to follow along.
- Participants either watched a mindfulness meditation video that instructs them to focus on the sensations of their body and their breath (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI4bDaZ83g4).
Physiological Arousal
- Construct Definition
- Physiological Arousal can be manipulated in many ways to increase heart rate of the individual. For this experiment, we chose to use a “high knees” exercise to increase heart rate.
- Operational Definition
- To manipulate physiological arousal, participants followed along and completed the instructed exercises from an exercise video.
- Participants either watched and followed along with a one-minute clip from a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workout video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGtjACeyHtc&t=1s).
Test Performance
- Construct Definition
- Test Performance is denoted by scores marking an individual’s rate of succes in testing environments. High test performance refers to the fact that more questions on a test have been identified as correct for a certain individual.
- Operational Definition
- To measure test performance, participants completed a math test.
- The test consisted of seven questions that address various mathematical topics.
Hypotheses
| Mindfulness Meditation | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| MM Before Test | No MM Before Test | ||
| Moderator IV | No Physiological Arousal | High Test Performance | Low Test Performance |
| Physiological Arousal | Low Test Performance | Low Test Performance |
Picture of Figure - Resulting Mean Scores of the Experiment
Mean Results
Discussion
- 1 Limitation: Sample Size
- 1 Strength: Random Assignment
- 1 Implication: People typically require different forms of intervention to succeed
What Next?
- Noted the possibility of significance with more participants.
- Because of the uniqueness of each individual, it is important to find what is effective on an individual level.
- Take action!