1. A protocol for a randomised active-controlled trial to evaluate the effects of an online mindfulness intervention on executive control, critical thinking and key thinking dispositions in a university student sample
Chris Noone & Michael J. Hogan
School of Psychology, NUI Galway
Introduction
Procedure
Critical Thinking (CT) is recognised as an important higher-order cognitive process which involves successful evaluation and analysis of evidence and arguments. According to default interventionist dual-processing accounts, such responses require the intervention of executive function (EF) to interrupt automatic processing. While EF was recently shown to mediate the relationship between mindfulness and CT performance (Noone, Bunting, & Hogan, 2016), no study has examined this relationship in a randomised controlled trial.
Enrolment
Baseline
Post-allocation
Close-out
TIMEPOINT: t1 t2 t3 t4
ENROLMENT:
Eligibility screen X
Informed consent
Allocation
Debrief
INTERVENTIONS:
t1 – 2 weeks
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Mindfulness Meditation
Sham
Meditation
ASSESSMENTS:
Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire
Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment
Actively Open-minded Thinking
Need for Cognition
Sternberg Working Memory Task
Heuristics and Biases Tasks
Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale
Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule
Real-World Outcomes
Practice Quality- Meditation
Technology Acceptance Model Questionnaire
Intervention Acceptability
Method
The design employed is a randomised-controlled 2 (condition) X 2 (time) parallel-group design which is explanatory in nature. A sample of at least 78 participants will be recruited from the pool of students at NUI Galway, with those between the ages of 18 and 65 with an adequate level of English included. Participants will be randomly assigned following screening, using block randomisation with a fixed block of 6 and a 1:1 ratio, to either the mindfulness meditation group or a sham meditation group. Both groups will be given access to the Headspace app. This is an app which provides guided meditations to users. Participants in each group will receive unique codes granting access to either the experimental or active-control intervention materials. Group allocation will be double-blinded.
Measures
Primary
Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire – Observing and Non-reactivity sub-scales
Measures tendency to engage in present-moment attention and non-reactivity.
Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment
Measures critical thinking ability through open and closed questions.
Actively Open-minded Thinking
Measures tendency to process information in a flexible manner.
Need for Cognition
Measures tendency to put active effort into thinking and problem-solving activities.
Secondary
Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale
Measures subjective well-being and psychological functioning.
Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale
Measures experiences of positive and negative emotion.
Real-world Outcomes Inventory
This is a behavioural checklist focused on life outcomes from many domains.
Hypotheses
Outcomes
Variable
Measure
Hypothesis
Analysis
Primary
Mindfulness
Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire 1
Mindfulness will increase more for the mindfulness meditation (MM) group than for the sham meditation (SM) group from t1 to t4
Mixed ANOVA
Critical Thinking
Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment1, Heuristic and Biases items2 2
Critical thinking will increase more for the MM group than for the SM group from t1 to t4 (a 1,2) and this effect will be moderated by baseline endorsement of thinking dispositions (b1,2)
Mixed ANOVA, ANCOVA
Thinking Dispositions
Actively Open-minded Thinking1, Need for Cognition2 3
Endorsement of critical thinking dispositions will increase more for the MM group than for the SM group from t1 to t4 (a 1,2)
Executive Control
Sternberg Working Memory Task 4
Executive control will increase more for the MM group than for the SM group from t1 to t4 (a) and this increase will mediate the relationship between levels of mindfulness and critical thinking performance following the intervention (b)
Mixed ANOVA, SEM
Secondary
Wellbeing
Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale 5
Wellbeing will increase and negative affect will decrease more for the MM group than for the SM group from t1 to t4
Positive Affect and Negative Affect
Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule subscale 6
Positive affect will increase more for the MM group than for the SM group from t1 to t4 (a)
Real-world Outcomes
Real-world Outcomes Inventory 7
Negative real-world outcomes will decrease more for the MM group than for SM group from t1 to t4
Discussion
If this intervention proves effective, it will show the potential of mindfulness practice to facilitate everyday critical thinking and should stimulate more interest in this line of research. If ineffective, claims regarding mindfulness and thinking skills should be tempered. This research was funded by a Galway Doctoral Research Scholarship awarded to the first author and was facilitated by Headspace Inc. who provided the intervention materials. The trial is registered in the ISRCTN registry and any protocol amendments will be recorded there (RCT ID: ISRCTN Registered 7th January 2016).
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