Mindfulness Promotes Adaptive Meaning-Making about Difficult Experiences in Introductory Physics: Evidence from Two Preregistered Randomized Controlled Trials
Abstract
Two field experiments with psychologically threatened undergraduates in introductory physics tested whether mindfulness promotes adaptive meaning-making about learning setbacks (Experiment 1) and unpleasant learning emotions (Experiment 2). Participants were randomly assigned to receive five consecutive days of 20-minute audio guided mindfulness training or to a no-training audiobook control (Experiment 1) or an active relaxation training (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1 (N=149), students completed experience sampling and longitudinal surveys assessing interpretations of difficult physics experiences. In Experiment 2 (N=303), students completed daily diaries of interpretations of negative physics emotions for 15 consecutive weekdays before, during, and after training. In both experiments, preregistered analyses showed that mindfulness students reported more adaptive interpretations, and in Experiment 2, meaning-making changes mediated improvements in both challenge-type stress appraisals and physics motivation. Though mindfulness is about non-elaborative observation of the present, our findings suggest its practice can be used to internalize adaptive meaning-making about learning struggles.
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design. Reported size: 303 participants or records.
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