Trait Mindfulness and Attentional Stability in Reward Contexts

Abstract

Sustained attention enables individuals to maintain stable, goal-directed behavior over time, even in the face of distractions or motivationally salient stimuli. Reward-associated cues, such as images of money, can undermine attentional stability by capturing cognitive resources. Trait mindfulness, defined as the dispositional ability to attend to present-moment experience nonjudgmentally, has been associated with enhanced executive functioning, including improved attention regulation and inhibitory control. At the neural level, mindfulness is linked to decreased activity in the Default Mode Network (DMN), which supports mind-wandering, and increased engagement of the Salience Network (SN), which helps orient attention toward behaviorally relevant cues [1].

This study investigated whether trait mindfulness predicts more consistent sustained attention (measured via reaction time variability, CV) and whether this relationship is amplified under reward-related task conditions. One hundred and four participants completed a modified Stop Signal Task (SST), where they responded to directional cues embedded in either neutral (stone images) or reward (money images) contexts. Trait mindfulness was assessed using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), and participants were split into high and low mindfulness groups based on median scores.

Independent-samples t-tests revealed that in the reward condition, high mindfulness participants showed significantly lower CV (M = .38, SD = .08) compared to low mindfulness participants (M = .45, SD = .09), t(49) = 2.64, p = .011, d = 0.73. No significant difference was found in the neutral condition (p = .11). A 2 (Mindfulness Group: high, low) × 2 (Context: reward, neutral) ANOVA showed a significant main effect of mindfulness, F(1, 100) = 6.97, p = .010, η² = .065, but no significant main effect of context or interaction (p > .24). These results suggest that trait mindfulness enhances attentional stability.

This research extends prior work on inhibitory control [2] by demonstrating that mindfulness benefits are not limited to discrete stopping tasks but generalize to the stability of attention over time. The findings align with neurocognitive models positing that mindfulness downregulates DMN activity while enhancing SN engagement, thereby supporting consistent cognitive performance [1], [3]. Future research should use within-subject designs to directly test reward sensitivity in attentional performance and apply neuroimaging methods to verify whether reduced CV reflects underlying network shifts.

References

[1] J. A. Brewer et al., “Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., vol. 108, no. 50, pp. 20254–20259, 2011. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1112029108.

[2] A. Logemann-Molnár, A. Veres-Székely, Z. Demetrovics, and H. N. A. Logemann, “Trait mindfulness and inhibitory control in reward contexts: A stop signal task study,” PLOS ONE, vol. 19, no. 2, e0303384, 2024. 10.1371/journal.pone.0303384.

[3] W. W. Seeley et al., “Dissociable intrinsic connectivity networks for salience processing and executive control,” J. Neurosci., vol. 27, no. 9, pp. 2349–2356, 2007. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5587-06.2007.