Mind Brain and Education
August 16, 2013
Lisa Flook, Simon B. Goldberg, Laura Pinger et al.
677 citations
A modified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course adapted for teachers reduced psychological symptoms and burnout, improved classroom organization as rated by observers, enhanced performance on a computer task measuring affective attentional bias, and increased self-compassion among participants. Control group participants showed declines in cortisol functioning over time and marginally significant increases in burnout. Changes in mindfulness correlated in the expected direction with changes in psychological symptoms, burnout, and sustained attention in the intervention group. The course appears promising for supporting teacher well-being and classroom effectiveness.
Developmental Psychology
November 10, 2014
Lisa Flook, Simon B. Goldberg, Laura Pinger et al.
561 citations
A 12-week mindfulness-based Kindness Curriculum delivered in a public school setting improved social competence and report card grades in learning, health, and social-emotional development among 68 preschool children, while the control group showed more selfish behavior over time. Small to medium effects favoring the intervention group were found on measures of cognitive flexibility and delay of gratification. Children initially lower in social competence and executive functioning showed larger gains in social competence. The findings support the program's promise for promoting self-regulation and prosocial behavior in young children.
Journal of Counseling Psychology
July 25, 2019
Simon B. Goldberg, Cara Knoeppel, Richard J. Davidson et al.
71 citations
In mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), the quality of meditation practice—not just the amount of time spent—mediates improvements in self-reported mindfulness. Multilevel mediation models showed that better practice quality linked practice time to changes in mindfulness, suggesting that how one practices is a mechanism connecting practice duration with outcomes. The authors recommend future research on practice quality in clinical samples using intensive sampling methods and objective measures.
PLoS ONE
December 12, 2018
M. Hirshberg, Simon B. Goldberg, S. Schaefer et al.
33 citations
Different styles of brief contemplative practices produce distinct effects on affect and behavior, especially under stress. In a randomized experiment with 156 undergraduates, gratitude training improved positive affect more than breath awareness, while loving-kindness reduced implicit negative affect more than a control condition. However, gratitude training also increased reactivity to a cold pressor stressor: participants reported it as more aversive and showed greater increases in negative affect. Those with greater gains in implicit positive affect after gratitude training later rated neutral faces as less likable and were less likely to donate time to help others. These findings suggest that even brief introductory practices can have divergent outcomes, which may be amplified by stress.
Applied developmental science
January 1, 2025
Lisa Flook, Matthew J Hirshberg, Lori Gustafson et al.
20 citations
Fifth graders who completed an 8-week school-based mindfulness training showed significant improvements on a computerized measure of cognitive flexibility and received higher end-of-year social-emotional learning grades compared to a wait-list control group, after accounting for prior-year grades. The 292 students from 21 classrooms were randomly assigned to either the mindfulness program or a control condition. Teacher-rated social-emotional competence did not differ between groups. The results suggest that a brief mindfulness intervention can bolster cognitive and social-emotional skills during the transitional pre-adolescent period.
Cognition & Emotion
January 29, 2021
Simon B. Goldberg, Lisa Flook, Matthew J. Hirshberg et al.
6 citations
Brief mindfulness meditation (breath awareness) may impair cognitive performance after acute stress compared to other contemplative practices. In a randomized trial with 162 participants, those who practiced loving-kindness, gratitude, or an attentional control improved their working memory scores on the Operation Span task after the cold pressor stress test, while the breath awareness group did not. Changes in working memory were unrelated to changes in mood. The findings suggest that brief breath awareness training may not buffer against acute stress in meditation-naïve individuals and could even hinder cognitive performance relative to other practices.
PLoS ONE
August 28, 2019
Simon B. Goldberg, Matthew J. Hirshberg, Lawrence Y. Tello et al.
2 citations
Long-term meditators are perceived by observers as less neurotic and more conscientious, mindful, and comfortable in their own skin than meditation-naïve individuals, based solely on ratings of still photographs. These differences were not explained by age, gender, race/ethnicity, body mass index, or attractiveness. No such differences were observed after an eight-week mindfulness meditation course, an active control program, or a waitlist period, suggesting that observable facial cues linked to meditation may require extensive training to emerge.