Implication of Physiological Arousal in Mindfulnes Meditation Affects Test Performance

Laura Diaz Martinez

Increased Heart Rate Impacts Negatively Academic Performance

  • Imagine that you are about to have your final calculus exam. Your heart, beats very fast, your breathing accelerates with every second. You feel like your nerves are getting the best of you and your hands are getting cold. When taking the exam you have a hard time concentrating and you forget some of the formulas. Many students experience this during their time in school.

  • The study by Vorontsova-Wenger et al., 2021 has shown mindfulness meditation to have a great long-term impact on reducing stress, anxiety and improving students’ career planning.

Mindfulness Meditation (Independent Variable)

  • Construct definition

    • Type of meditation focused on being aware of oneself without judging and is practiced through guided breathing to reduce heart rate.

  • Operational definition

    • To manipulate mindfulness meditation, participants watched a one-minute mindfulness meditation video and were instructed to follow along. Participants either watched a mindfulness meditation video that guides them through the 5-4-3-2-1 method to reduce anxiety.

1 Minute Jumping Jacks (Moderator)

  • Construct definition

    • Physical exercise with the aim of raising the heart rate causing physiological arousal.

  • Operational definition

    • To manipulate physiological arousal, participants watched a one minute exercise video and were instructed to follow along to increase heart rate.

Test Performance (Dependent Variable)

  • Construct definition

    • Evaluate the responses and performance though the correct answers.

  • Operational definition

    • To measure test performance, participants completed a math test. The test consisted of seven questions that address various mathematical topics.

Hypotheses

Main IV
Mindfulness No Mindfulness
Moderator IV Physiological Arousal High test performance Low test performance
No Physiological Arousal High test performance Low test performance

Actual Results

My Table Results

Discussion

  • Limitations: environmental factors were not controlled, which could cause variations in the results.

  • Strength: Our study focused on the study of mindfulness meditation and how its effects can be affected by physiological arousal in college students, which is an underrepresented area.

  • Implication: short videos of mindfulness meditation should not be used in schools since they do not have a significant effect on mental health despite physiological arousal.

Further Directions

  • More longitudinal studies should be carried out in this area with long-duration videos, taking into account the control of environmental factors, the origins of the participants and the presence of any neurodevelopmental disorder.

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