Effects of Mindfulness on Conceptual Modeling Performance: a Series of Experiments

Context. Mindfulness is a meditation technique whose main goal is keeping the mind calm and educating attention by focusing only on one thing at a time, usually breathing. The reported benefits of its continued practice can be of interest for Software Engineering students and practitioners, especially in tasks like conceptual modeling, in which concentration and clearness of mind are crucial. Goal. In order to evaluate whether Software Engineering students enhance their conceptual modeling performance after several weeks of mindfulness practice, a series of three controlled experiments were carried out at the University of Seville during three consecutive academic years (2013–2016) involving 130 students. Method. In all the experiments, the subjects were divided into two groups. While the experimental group practiced mindfulness, the control group was trained in public speaking as a placebo treatment. All the subjects developed two conceptual models based on a transcript of an interview, one before and another one after the treatment. The results were compared in terms of conceptual modeling quality (measured as effectiveness, i.e. the percentage of model elements correctly identified) and productivity (measured as efficiency, i.e. the number of model elements correctly identified per unit of time). Results. The statistically significant results of the series of experiments revealed that the subjects who practiced mindfulness developed slightly better conceptual models (their quality was 8.16% higher) and they did it faster (they were 46.67% more productive) than the control group, even if they did not have a previous interest in meditation. Conclusions. The practice of mindfulness improves the performance of Software Engineering students in conceptual modeling, especially their productivity. Nevertheless, more experimentation is needed in order to confirm the outcomes in other Software Engineering tasks and populations.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2015–70560–RJunta de Andalucía US–1264651Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades RTI2018–101204–B–C22Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades RTI2018- 101204–B–C21Junta de Andalucía P18–FR–289

Information and Collective Mindfulness - A Methodological Replication Study

This paper reinvestigates the cognitive theory of collective mindfulness on organizational Information Systems performance by conducting a methodological replication of Khan, Lederer, and Mirchandani’s (2013) study. Collective mindfulness in the context of organizational information systems (IS) has significant effects on effectiveness and performance. We found that upper management concern and support for IS influences organizational performance through collective mindfulness. Upper management concern for typical and atypical situations and their associated repercussions on performance require solutions in real-time and concern for alternative problem-solving methods. Collective mindfulness addresses the notion of a more in-depth and purposeful analysis of potential catalysts negatively affecting performance. Future studies are encouraged to strengthen this study through construct improvement including the addition of relevant dimensions to collective mindfulness

Interventions to support the mental health and wellbeing of engineering students: a scoping review.

Engineering students enter a challenging and competitive sector in higher education and are potentially at risk of poor mental health and or mental wellbeing. It is important to raise awareness of and support good mental health and wellbeing for engineering students. We carried out a scoping review using Joanna Briggs Institute scoping review methodology. Published sources of evidence were searched for this review via: MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, PsycInfo, Compendex, Web of Science, Emerald, Epistemonikos and Business Source Complete. Searches were conducted in January 2019 and updated in January 2020, and March 2022. Two reviewers independently screened all titles and abstracts, full text sources and extracted data using a form developed by the authors. Results: Searches identified 191 sources of evidence after title screening and 33 sources of evidence were included for final extraction following full-text screening. This represented over 4000 engineering students from 10 countries. Included studies were predominantly pilots, which suggests a lack of diverse research methods in the existing research base. Studies also varied in approaches to reporting. Interventions included training, relaxation, technology use, alternative teaching models, support services and a study break witha range of outcome measures used to evaluate intervention effects. Results of included studies noted reduced stress and anxiety, improved academic achievement, improved communication, motivation, physiological responses, attitude, and increased physical activity, health awareness and confidence. Mindfulness activities appear to be accepted by and helpful to engineering students. Conclusions: This review mapped interventions to support mental health and wellbeing in engineering students but identifies a need for further high-quality robust studies that are transparently reported using reporting guidelines

Where attention goes, energy flows : enhancing individual sustainability in software engineering

Software engineers are plagued by the same troubles as many others in highly skilled jobs and digitized environments: Ever-expanding to-do lists, time to market pressure from management, deadline- driven development, continuous interruption during working tasks, and the juggle of balancing that with other areas of life (physical, mental and emotional health, family, household, finance, friends, hobbies and community service). These demands of life in combina- tion with a seemingly ever-increasing pace wear or burn out many people in the long run. Specifically, as software engineers, this also leads to decreased creativity and less efficiency in problem-solving. Generally offered solutions are reducing screen time and spending more time outdoors, both of which are hard to do within the work of a software engineer. On a meta level, if the developers of the systems that run most of our world do not develop individual sus- tainability with a balanced pace of life, that imbalance propagates into the systems we develop (similar to Conway’s Law). We argue that mindfulness practices like yoga poses (asanas), breathing prac- tices, and meditation exercises can help individually, and even more effectively in combination. In this exploratory paper, we discuss related work that explores the application of these mitigations in other application domains and propose a research agenda to explore their use within software engineering education and practice.Engaging with mindfulness practices in the context of software engineering promises to enhance creativity and cognitive problem- solving skills, leading to more efficiency and effectiveness during software development and increased individual sustainability. This, in turn, leads to better team spirit as well as increased economic profit, both in terms of maintaining human capital and customer contract deliverables

One-session mindfulness meditation interventions

Mindfulness has enjoyed increasing popularity among Western scholars and practitioners, leading to a surge of scientific publications. Within this field, more and more studies employ an experimental approach and focus on the immediate effects of one session of mindfulness meditation. This dissertation sought to contribute to this subfield in three ways. To make a general survey of the field, a preliminary systematic scoping of onesession mindfulness meditation studies was conducted. The results of this review, presented in Chapter 2, allowed us to characterize and critically evaluate the typical study in this field. One important contribution of this thesis is the raw data (a table of coded studies) for the scoping review, accessible online at https://osf.io/h7k9g/. Chapter 3 presents a preregistered (https://aspredicted.org/blind.php?x=dn7uz3) experimental study comparing the effects of mindfulness meditation to a mindwandering control induction on aggression. Several important limitations constrained our ability to draw inferences from this study, and they are examined in the detail in the chapter. Chapter 4 consolidates the main contribution of this thesis by reflecting on the previous work and detailing a list of recommendations for future researchers in this subfield. This is done with particular attention to methodological and theoretical issues raised as a result of psychology’s “replication crisis”.O mindfulness (ou “atenção plena) tem sido cada vez mais popular entre investigadores e praticantes no Ocidente, resultando numa avalanche de publicações científicas. Dentro deste campo de estudo, cada vez mais estudos usam uma abordagem experimental para estudar os efeitos de uma única sessão de meditação mindfulness. Esta dissertação pretendeu contribuir para este campo de três maneiras. Para fazer um apanhado geral do campo de investigação, foi executada uma scoping review sistemática de estudos de uma sessão de meditação de mindfulness. Os resultados desta revisão, apresentados no Capítulo 2, permitiram-nos caracterizar e avaliar criticamente o típico estudo neste campo. Uma contribuição importante desta dissertação é a tabela de dados da revisão (uma tabela com todos os estudos incluídos e codificados), disponível em https://osf.io/h7k9g/. O Capítulo 3 apresenta um estudo experimental pré-registado (https://aspredicted.org/blind.php?x=dn7uz3) que comparou os efeitos sobre a agressão de meditação mindfulness versus uma indução de controlo (mindwandering). Várias limitações reduzem a nossa capacidade de fazer inferências a partir dos resultados, e as mesmas são examinadas em detalhe no capítulo. O Capítulo 4 consolida a maior contribuição desta dissertação refletindo no restante trabalho e detalhando uma lista de recomendações para investigações futuras neste campo. Estas recomendações foram criadas com especial atenção a questões metodológicas e teóricas levantadas como resultado da “crise de replicação” na psicologia

Testing Claims of Efficacy and Mechanism of Action for Emotion Focused Couples Therapy: A Dyadic Case Study Using Time-Series Design

The overall purpose of this study was to test claims regarding both the efficacy and mechanism of change for Emotion Focused Couple Therapy (EFT). Although a number of treatment outcome studies have been conducted on EFT, the vast majority of these studies emanate from the research laboratories associated with the two founders of EFT. Additionally, most EFT research has examined treatment outcome rather than mechanisms of change. This study used a time-series single-case experimental design approach to examine both the efficacy and the mechanisms of change in EFT for couple distress. I systematically tracked the symptoms of couple distress across the span of an EFT treatment and explored how symptom severity varied over time within the dyad across several measures. Simulation modeling analysis (SMA) for time-series data was used to evaluate the level change across baseline, treatment, and follow-up phases. Further, crosslag correlational analyses were used to clarify the mechanism of change in EFT. Experimental results from the time-series design provided moderate support for the EFT efficacy claim. Partial support was also found for the underlying EFT mechanism of action claim linking attachment insecurity and marital distress. Two of the EFT mechanism of action claims and an interpersonal mindfulness exploratory hypothesis, however, were unsupported by the experimental data. Implications for future research are discussed

Using Bayes to get the most out of non-significant results

No scientific conclusion follows automatically from a statistically non-significant result, yet people routinely use non-significant results to guide conclusions about the status of theories (or the effectiveness of practices). To know whether a non-significant result counts against a theory, or if it just indicates data insensitivity, researchers must use one of: power, intervals (such as confidence or credibility intervals), or else an indicator of the relative evidence for one theory over another, such as a Bayes factor. I argue Bayes factors allow theory to be linked to data in a way that overcomes the weaknesses of the other approaches. Specifically, Bayes factors use the data themselves to determine their sensitivity in distinguishing theories (unlike power), and they make use of those aspects of a theory’s predictions that are often easiest to specify (unlike power and intervals, which require specifying the minimal interesting value in order to address theory). Bayes factors provide a coherent approach to determining whether non-significant results support a null hypothesis over a theory, or whether the data are just insensitive. They allow accepting and rejecting the null hypothesis to be put on an equal footing. Concrete examples are provided to indicate the range of application of a simple online Bayes calculator, which reveal both the strengths and weaknesses of Bayes factors

AWARENESS, ACCEPTANCE, AND EQUANIMITY: RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN TRAIT MINDFULNESS, STRESS, AND BLOOD PRESSURE

Hypertension (HTN) is associated with stress and unhealthy emotion regulation. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are said to help address stress-related diseases like cardiovascular disease by impacting stress and emotion regulation, yet studies of MBIs on cardiovascular health show inconsistent findings. Limited research has examined the basic links between trait mindfulness and cardiovascular health, leaving the active components of MBIs in this context unclear. Therefore, the current study examined the relationship between trait mindfulness and blood pressure (BP) in individuals with pre-hypertension (pre-HTN). Latent variables representing two conceptualizations of trait mindfulness -Monitor and Accept Theory (MAT) and Equanimity- were calculated using facets of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), and their relationships with BP tested (n=296) using structural equation modeling and moderated multiple regression. Higher equanimity associated with higher BP at a level not reaching clinical relevance, and this relationship was not moderated by stress or mediated by rumination or suppression. Trait mindfulness as described in MAT did not predict lower SBP or DBP. Validity concerns regarding the FFMQ, and the state of the mindfulness research field are discussed in relation to the current study results. Subsequent recommendations for improving trait mindfulness measurement are described

Replicating the effect of brain stimulation on mind wandering: A pre-registered study

Mind wandering (MW) is a common mental phenomenon. Despite this, there is still much we don’t know about this pervasive mental state. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been proposed to be able to modulate mind wandering propensity, but a large variability in results paints an inconclusive picture in the current brain stimulation literature, and a satisfactory conclusion is still lacking. Recently, a study by Boayue et al. (2020) reported to successfully reduce mind wandering using high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, providing preliminary evidence of the efficacy of HD-tDCS in modulating MW. The current thesis introduces the topic of replicating this elusive effect of non-invasive brain stimulation in depth, as well as reporting a high-powered, pre-registered direct replication attempt of the effect found by Boayue et al. (2020). Additionally, the results of investigating MW with a finger-tapping random sequence generation task that draws heavily on executive resources are reported. We failed to replicate the original effect of reducing MW during HD-tDCS, and in a meta-analytic approach, when the data was combined with Boayue et al. (2020) the original effect of HD-tDCS reducing MW disappeared. These findings and potential problems of brain stimulation studies (in particular their low replicability) and their implications are reviewed and discussed

Investigation of the Effects of a Yoga Intervention on Experiential Avoidance, Symptoms of Psychological Distress, and Substance Use

The current study sought to examine the utility of yoga for reducing experiential avoidance (EA), as well as symptoms of psychological distress (SPD) and substance use. EA refers to the attempt to avoid or control adverse bodily sensations, thoughts, feelings, and memories despite negative consequences. Yoga is a holistic system of mind-body practices which includes physical postures, stretching, and breathing exercises aimed at maintaining and improving both mental and physical health. Undergraduates (n = 43) from a yoga class and basic exercise classes were recruited to participate and served as the intervention and active control group, respectively. Self-reported measures of EA, SPD (i.e., anxiety, depression), and substance use were collected at pre- and post-intervention time points. It was hypothesized that EA levels would be reduced from Time 1 to Time 2 in students participating in the yoga intervention compared to the control group, and that reductions in EA would mediate the relation between condition assignment and reductions in SPD and reported substance use. Overall, our hypotheses were not supported. Furthermore, our findings indicated Group differences in EA scores at Time 1