Examining the Effects of Focused Meditation on Visual Perception

Meditation has been linked to many reported changes in perception, including colors becoming more vivid, changes in brightness, and the blurring of boundaries between objects. The mechanisms behind these perceptual changes are not yet known. Here, we describe a “meditation” task that we conducted in the lab, which we can use to test different possible explanations. In the current experiment, we will present a single static image of a clay pot on a computer monitor for 15 minutes. Participants will sit at a fixed distance in front of the monitor and be instructed to concentrate all their attention on the clay pot and “keep out” all other thoughts or feelings or sounds or body sensations. In other words, they will focus on a single thing while trying to clear their minds of distractions, a task that strongly resembles many forms of meditation. We will then ask participants a series of debriefing questions designed to elicit comments about perceptual effects that might have occurred—but without the potential for participants to simply agree with our expectations. We expect that many participants will report some perceptual effects, including changes in perceived shape or brightness. By knowing when the effects occur during the experiment, we can explore whether other physiological events happen around those times and thus begin to determine the mechanisms underlying these experiences.