Background

Sustaining attention for extended periods of time is associated with negative affect and this increase in negative affect is related to poorer task performance. Trait mindfulness has been shown to be associated with better sustained attention performance. This may be because trait mindfulness is associated with better attention ability or better emotion regulation ability.

Aims

The present research aims to replicate previous findings and better understand why trait mindfulness is associated with better sustained attention performance.

Method

Participants responded to self-report questionnaires assessing their trait mindfulness, attentional control, and experiential avoidance. Next, participants performed a sustained attention task, during which they also reported their subjective feelings of discomfort and boredom. Finally, participants reported their retrospective discomfort and boredom after the task.

Results

We replicated and extended previous findings by showing that the relationship between trait mindfulness and sustained attention performance was mediated by negative affect experienced during the task. Moreover, the correlation between trait mindfulness and sustained attention disappeared when controlling for experiential avoidance, but remined when controlling for attention control.

Conclusion

Our results suggest that trait mindfulness is associated with sustained attention because of enhanced emotion regulation and that enhancing affective regulation would be an effective strategy for improving sustained attention performance.

中文翻译：

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坐下来：特质正念与持续注意力的关系调查

背景

长时间保持注意力与负面情绪有关，而这种负面情绪的增加与较差的任务绩效有关。特质正念已被证明与更好的持续注意力表现有关。这可能是因为特质正念与更好的注意力或更好的情绪调节能力有关。

宗旨

本研究旨在复制先前的发现，并更好地理解为什么特质正念与更好的持续注意力表现相关。

方法

参与者对自我报告问卷做出回应，评估他们的特质正念、注意力控制和经验回避。接下来，参与者执行了一项持续的注意力任务，在此期间他们还报告了他们对不适和无聊的主观感受。最后，参与者报告了他们在任务后回顾性的不适和无聊。

结果

我们通过显示特质正念和持续注意力表现之间的关系是由任务期间经历的负面影响介导的，来复制和扩展之前的发现。此外，当控制经验回避时，特质正念和持续注意力之间的相关性消失，但在控制注意力控制时被提醒。

结论

我们的研究结果表明，特质正念与持续注意力相关，因为情绪调节增强，而增强情感调节将是提高持续注意力表现的有效策略。