Kozhevnikov Maria, Louchakova Olga, Josipovic Zoran, Motes Michael A
Psychology Department, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA.
Psychol Sci. 2009 May;20(5):645-53. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02345.x.
This study examined the effects of meditation on mental imagery, evaluating Buddhist monks' reports concerning their extraordinary imagery skills. Practitioners of Buddhist meditation were divided into two groups according to their preferred meditation style: Deity Yoga (focused attention on an internal visual image) or Open Presence (evenly distributed attention, not directed to any particular object). Both groups of meditators completed computerized mental-imagery tasks before and after meditation. Their performance was compared with that of control groups, who either rested or performed other visuospatial tasks between testing sessions. The results indicate that all the groups performed at the same baseline level, but after meditation, Deity Yoga practitioners demonstrated a dramatic increase in performance on imagery tasks compared with the other groups. The results suggest that Deity meditation specifically trains one's capacity to access heightened visuospatial processing resources, rather than generally improving visuospatial imagery abilities.
本研究考察了冥想对心理意象的影响,评估了佛教僧侣关于其非凡意象技能的报告。佛教冥想修行者根据其偏好的冥想方式分为两组:本尊瑜伽(将注意力集中于一个内在视觉形象)或开放安住(注意力均匀分布,不指向任何特定对象)。两组冥想者在冥想前后都完成了计算机化的心理意象任务。他们的表现与对照组进行了比较,对照组在测试期间要么休息,要么执行其他视觉空间任务。结果表明,所有组在基线水平上表现相同,但冥想后,本尊瑜伽修行者在意象任务上的表现与其他组相比有显著提高。结果表明,本尊冥想专门训练了一个人获取增强的视觉空间处理资源的能力,而不是普遍提高视觉空间意象能力。