In sum, my hypotheses are partially supported. My first hypothesis is that
BMAA-C practice can enhance children’s sustained attention, working memory
capacities and bodily awareness. This hypothesis is partially supported. As predicted,
there is a positive training effect of BMAA-C on children’s working memory
capacities and sustained attention (RTCV). However, no training effect on any of the
indices regarding bodily senses was found.
Second, the finding that children’s abilities of bodily awareness of
proprioception can predict their performance on sustained attention (less RTCV and
higher NOGO ACC) supports my second hypothesis. However, unexpectedly,
children’s abilities regarding interoception are not associated to any of their executive
functions I measured. Children’s working memory capacities are also independent to
their bodily awareness.
My third hypothesis is that the improvement on cognitive functions is
accompanied by the improvement of bodily awareness. It was also partially
supported. Since through further analysis, I found that there is a contingency between
the improvement on proprioception awareness (PAW) and that on NOGO ACC in
below-median-PAW group.
My last hypothesis predicts that children with better bodily senses can benefit
more from the training. The data again partially supported my hypothesis showing
that only children with better proprioceptive accuracy or poorer proprioceptive
awareness before the training benefit more on sustained attention, indicating by the
increased averaged rate of NOGO ACC, from the training than their counterparts,
respectively. No individual differences in bodily senses influence the degree of
training effect on working memory capacities and RTCV, another index for sustained
attention.
As reported above, the findings about the two indices of sustained attention,
NOGO ACC and RTCV, are somewhat inconsistent. In correlational study,
interoceptive awareness was found to moderate the correlation between
proprioceptive awareness and sustained attention only for RTCV but not NOGO ACC.
In contrast, children’s proprioception before training could influence how much they
improved on NOGO ACC but not RTCV after the BMAA training in the next study. It
is likely that performance indicated by NOGO ACC not only influenced by sustained
attention but also by motor inhibition process. Thus, the benefit from BMAA training
in NOGO ACC was influenced by proprioception at T1.
There are several contributions of my thesis. First, a new objective measure of
proprioceptive awareness is introduced. In addition, it is found to be a good predictor for children’s performance on sustained attention. Second, a feasible short-term
movement-based mindfulness intervention program for children, BMAA-C, is
introduced and tested. It is found to be effective on improving children’s working
memory capacities and sustained attention, both are crucial for learning and
goal-derived behaviors.
Third, I have examined, for the first time, whether practitioner’s abilities
regarding different aspects of bodily sense would influence the training effect of my
intervention program, during which bodily senses are emphasized, on executive
functions. Although I found that the effect of bodily sense only occurred in a
subgroup of trainees, it is nevertheless intriguing and may serve as the first step to
understand how body and mind interact with each other in the context of
contemplative training, including mindfulness-based and movement-based trainings.
There are also some limitations in this thesis and the findings should be
interpreted cautiously. First, the number of participant may not be enough for a study
examining moderating effect. Further studies with more participants are needed to
replicate the moderating effects reported here. Second, my children participants’ ages
mostly were at 8-9 years old. It should be cautious to generalize the findings to
children not at these ages or to adults. Third, our control group was performed better
on proprioceptive awareness, which was found to be correlated to children’s sustained
attention. Future studies with well-matched control group are needed for replication.
Fourth, although I found a short-term training effect of BMAA-C on executive
functions right after the training period, how long the effects will last is still unknown.
Finally, whether my findings about the BMAA training can be generalize to other
MBCPs and mindfulness-based trainings is still unknown and should be examined in
the future.
Reference
Chinese Reference
(Each reference in this part was translated to English from the original Chinese
language listed right below)
［Chen, Y.-H. (1994). The vernacular of Ya-Yua dance. Taipei, Taiwan: Wan Juan
Lou Publishing.］
陳玉秀（1994）。雅樂舞的白話文：以樂記為例探看古樂的身體。台北：萬卷樓
出版社。
［Chen, Y.-H. (2011a). The loop of body-mind energy. Taipei, Taiwan: Foundation of
Music of Taiwanese Indigenous People.］
陳玉秀（2011a）。身心量覺的迴路。 台北：財團法人原住民音樂文教基金會。
［Chen, Y.-H. (2011b). Ya-Yue dance and the body-mind stagnation. Taipei, Taiwan:
Foundation of Music of Taiwanese Indigenous People.］
陳玉秀（2011b）。雅樂舞與身心的鬱閼。台北：財團法人原住民音樂文教基金
會。
［Child Welfare League Foundation (2012). A Survey of participation in exercise for
children. Retrieved from http://www.children.org.tw.］
兒福聯盟（2012）2012 年兒童運動狀況調查報告。取自
http://www.children.org.tw。
［Li, Y. C., Wu, S. K., (2007) Prevalence of eleven to twelve year-old Taiwanese
children with developmental coordination disorder. Health Promotion Science,
2(1), 55-67］
李曜全、吳昇光（2007）。臺灣 11-12 歲兒童族群發展協調障礙之盛行率。健康
促進科學，2(1)，55-67。
［Tzang, R. F., Wu, K. H., & Liou, C. P. (2002) Prevalence of
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in a Taiwanese elementary school. Taiwanese
Journal of Psychiatry, 16, 202-212］
臧汝芬、吳光顯、劉秋平（2002）。台灣某國小注意力不足過動症兒童之盛行
率。台灣精神醫學，16， 202-212。
English Reference
Adamo, N., Di Martino, A., Esu, L., Petkova, E., Johnson, K., Kelly, S.,... & Zuddas,
A. (2012). Increased response-time variability across different cognitive tasks in
children with ADHD. Journal of Attention Disorders, 1087054712439419.
Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991), Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting
Interactions, Newbury Park, California: Sage.
Alloway, R. G., & Alloway, T. P. (2015). The working memory benefits of
proprioceptively demanding training: A pilot study. Perceptual and Motor Skills,
120, 766-775.
American Psychiatric Association (1994). DSM-IV diagnostic and statistical manual
of mental disorders. Washington, DC: APA.
Beauchemin, J., Hutchins, T. L., & Patterson, F. (2008). Mindfulness meditation may
lessen anxiety, promote social skills, and improve academic performance among
adolescents with learning disabilities. Complementary Health Practice Review,
13, 34-45.
Biegel, G., & Brown, K. (2010). Assessing the efficacy of an adapted in-class
mindfulness-based training program for school-age children: A pilot study.
Mindful Schools.
Biegel, G. M., Brown, K. W., Shapiro, S. L., & Schubert, C. M. (2009).
Mindfulness-based stress reduction for the treatment of adolescent psychiatric outpatients: A
randomized clinical trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 77,
855.
Bilderbeck, A. C., Farias, M., Brazil, I. A., Jakobowitz, S., & Wikholm, C. (2013).
Participation in a 10-week course of yoga improves behavioural control and
decreases psychological distress in a prison population. Journal of Psychiatric
Research, 47, 1438-1445.
Blair, C., & Razza, R. P. (2007). Relating effortful control, executive function, and
false belief understanding to emerging math and literacy ability in kindergarten.
Child Development, 78, 647-663.
Burke, C. A. (2010). Mindfulness-based approaches with children and adolescents: A
preliminary review of current research in an emergent field. Journal of Child and
Family Studies, 19, 133-144.
Caldwell, K., Harrison, M., Adams, M., Quin, R. H., & Greeson, J. (2010).
Developing mindfulness in college students through movement-based courses:
effects on self-regulatory self-efficacy, mood, stress, and sleep quality. Journal of
American College Health, 58, 433-442.
Cebolla, A., Miragall, M., Palomo, P., Llorens, R., Soler, J., Demarzo, M.,... & Baños,
R. M. (2016). Embodiment and body awareness in meditators. Mindfulness, 7,
1297-1305.
Chang, Y. K., Hung, C. L., Huang, C. J., Hatfield, B. D., & Hung, T. M. (2014).
Effects of an aquatic exercise program on inhibitory control in children with
ADHD: a preliminary study. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 29, 217-223.
Chang, Y. F., Yang, Y. H., Chen, C. C., & Chiang, B. L. (2008). Tai Chi Chuan
training improves the pulmonary function of asthmatic children. Journal of
Microbiology, Immunology, and Infection, 41, 88-95.
Cheyne, J. A., Solman, G. J., Carriere, J. S., & Smilek, D. (2009). Anatomy of an
error: A bidirectional state model of task engagement/disengagement and
attention-related errors. Cognition, 111, 98-113.
Chiesa, A., Calati, R., & Serretti, A. (2011). Does mindfulness training improve
cognitive abilities? A systematic review of neuropsychological findings. Clinical
Psychology Review, 31, 449-464.
Colzato, L. S., Ozturk, A., & Hommel, B. (2012). Meditate to create: the impact of
focused-attention and open-monitoring training on convergent and divergent
thinking. Frontiers in Psychology, 3.
Corbett, M. L. (2011). The effect of a mindfulness meditation intervention on
attention, affect, anxiety, mindfulness, and salivary cortisol in school aged
children (Unpublished master thesis). Florida Atlantic University.
Crescentini, C., Capurso, V., Furlan, S., & Fabbro, F. (2016). Mindfulness-oriented
meditation for primary school children: Effects on attention and psychological
well-being. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 805.
Deshpande, N., Connelly, D. M., Culham, E. G., & Costigan, P. A. (2003). Reliability
and validity of ankle proprioceptive measures. Archives of Physical Medicine and
Rehabilitation, 84, 883-889.
Ding, X., Tang, Y. Y., Deng, Y., Tang, R., & Posner, M. I. (2015). Mood and
personality predict improvement in creativity due to meditation training.
Learning and Individual Differences, 37, 217-221.
Eley, T. C., Gregory, A. M., Clark, D. M., & Ehlers, A. (2007). Feeling anxious: A
twin study of panic/somatic ratings, anxiety sensitivity and heartbeat perception
in children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48, 1184-1191.
Farb, N. A., Segal, Z. V., & Anderson, A. K. (2012). Mindfulness meditation training
alters cortical representations of interoceptive attention. Social Cognitive and
Affective Neuroscience, 8, 15-26.
Felver, J. C., Tipsord, J. M., Morris, M. J., Racer, K. H., & Dishion, T. J. (2014). The
effects of mindfulness-based intervention on children’s attention regulation.
Journal of Attention Disorders, 1-10. doi: 10.1177/1087054714548032
Fliers, E., Rommelse, N., Vermeulen, S. H. H. M., Altink, M., Buschgens, C. J. M.,
Faraone, S. V., ... & Buitelaar, J. K. (2008). Motor coordination problems in
children and adolescents with ADHD rated by parents and teachers: Effects of
age and gender. Journal of Neural Transmission, 115, 211-220.
Flook, L., Smalley, S. L., Kitil, M. J., Galla, B. M., Kaiser-Greenland, S., Locke,
J., . . . Kasari, C. (2010). Effects of mindful awareness practices on executive
functions in elementary school children. Journal of Applied School Psychology,
26, 70-95.
Garfinkel, S. N., & Critchley, H. D. (2013). Interoception, emotion and brain: New insights link internal physiology to social behaviour. Commentary on:“Anterior
insular cortex mediates bodily sensibility and social anxiety” by Terasawa et
al.(2012). Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 8, 231-234.
Garfinkel, S. N., Seth, A. K., Barrett, A. B., Suzuki, K., & Critchley, H. D. (2015).
Knowing your own heart: distinguishing interoceptive accuracy from
interoceptive awareness. Biological Psychology, 104, 65-74.
Goleman, D. (2003). Healing emotions: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on
mindfulness, emotions, and health. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications.
Gothe, N., Pontifex, M. B., Hillman, C. H., & McAuley, E. (2013). The acute effects
of yoga on executive function. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 10,
488-495.
Hargus, E., Crane, C., Barnhofer, T., & Williams, J. M. G. (2010). Effects of
mindfulness on meta-awareness and specificity of describing prodromal
symptoms in suicidal depression. Emotion, 10, 34.
Hernandez-Reif, M., Field, T. M., & Thimas, E. (2001). Attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder: Benefits from Tai Chi. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies,
5, 120-123.
Hölzel, B. K., Lazar, S. W., Gard, T., Schuman-Olivier, Z., Vago, D. R., & Ott, U.
(2011). How does mindfulness meditation work? Proposing mechanisms of
action from a conceptual and neural perspective. Perspectives on Psychological
Science, 6, 537-559.
Johnson, K. A., Robertson, I. H., Kelly, S. P., Silk, T. J., Barry, E., Dáibhis, A., ... &
Gill, M. (2007). Dissociation in performance of children with ADHD and
high-functioning autism on a task of sustained attention. Neuropsychologia, 45,
2234-2245.
Kalayil, J. A. (1988). A controlled comparison of progressive relaxation and yoga
meditation as methods to relieve stress in middle grade school children
(Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Seton Hall University, New Jersey
Kerr, C. E., Sacchet, M. D., Lazar, S. W., Moore, C. I., & Jones, S. R. (2013).
Mindfulness starts with the body: Somatosensory attention and top-down
modulation of cortical alpha rhythms in mindfulness meditation. Frontiers in
Human Neuroscience, 7, 12.
Khalsa, S. S., Rudrauf, D., Damasio, A. R., Davidson, R. J., Lutz, A., & Tranel, D.
(2008). Interoceptive awareness in experienced meditators. Psychophysiology,
45, 671-677.
Kirk, U., Downar, J., & Montague, P. R. (2011). Interoception drives increased
rational decision-making in meditators playing the ultimatum game. Frontiers in
Neuroscience, 5.
Koch, A., & Pollatos, O. (2014). Cardiac sensitivity in children: Sex differences and
its relationship to parameters of emotional processing. Psychophysiology, 51,
932-941.
Lee, J., Semple, R. J., Rosa, D., & Miller, L. (2008). Mindfulness-based cognitive
therapy for children: Results of a pilot study. Journal of Cognitive
Psychotherapy, 22, 15-28.
Liutsko, L. N. (2013). Proprioception as a basis for individual differences. Psychology
in Russia: State of the Art, 6(3), 107-119.
Manjunath, N. K., & Telles, S. (2001). Improved performance in the Tower of London
test following yoga. Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, 45,
351-354.
Marsh, A. P., & Geel, S. E. (2000). The effect of age on the attentional demands of
postural control. Gait & Posture, 12, 105-113.
McVay, J. C., & Kane, M. J. (2009). Conducting the train of thought: Working
memory capacity, goal neglect, and mind wandering in an executive-control task.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35, 196.
Meessen, J., Mainz, V., Gauggel, S., Volz-Sidiropoulou, E., Sütterlin, S., & Forkmann,
T. (2016). The relationship between interoception and metacognition. Journal of
Psychophysiology, 30, 76–86.
Moffitt, T. E., Arseneault, L., Belsky, D., Dickson, N., Hancox, R. J., Harrington,
H., . . . Ross, S. (2011). A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health,
wealth, and public safety. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108,
2693-2698.
Mohanty, S., Pradhan, B., & Nagathna, R. (2014). The effect of yoga practice on
proprioception in congenitally blind students. British Journal of Visual
Impairment, 32, 124-135.
Mon‐Williams, M. A., Wann, J. P., & Pascal, E. (1999). Visual–proprioceptive
mapping in children with developmental coordination disorder. Developmental
Medicine & Child Neurology, 41, 247-254.
Morrison, A. B., Goolsarran, M., Rogers, S. L., & Jha, A. P. (2014). Taming a
wandering attention: Short-form mindfulness training in student cohorts.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 897.
Mrazek, M. D., Franklin, M. S., Phillips, D. T., Baird, B., & Schooler, J. W. (2013).
Mindfulness training improves working memory capacity and GRE performance
while reducing mind wandering. Psychological Science, 24, 776-781.
Mrazek, M. D., Smallwood, J., & Schooler, J. W. (2012). Mindfulness and
mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. Emotion, 12, 442.
Napoli, M., Krech, P. R., & Holley, L. C. (2005). Mindfulness training for elementary
school students: The attention academy. Journal of Applied School Psychology,
21(1), 99.
Nielsen, L., & Kaszniak, A. W. (2006). Awareness of subtle emotional feelings: A
comparison of long-term meditators and nonmeditators. Emotion, 6, 392.
Peirce, J. W. (2009). Generating stimuli for neuroscience using PsychoPy. Frontiers in
Neuroinformatics, 2. doi:10.3389/neuro.11.010.2008
Piek, J. P., Pitcher, T. M., & Hay, D. A. (1999). Motor coordination and kinaesthesis
in boys with attention deficit–hyperactivity disorder. Developmental Medicine &
Child Neurology, 41, 159-165.
Pincivero, D. M., Bachmeier, B. R. A. D., & Coelho, A. J. (2001). The effects of joint
angle and reliability on knee proprioception. Medicine and Science in Sports and
Exercise, 33, 1708-1712.
Polanczyk, G., de Lima, M. S., Horta, B. L., Biederman, J., & Rohde, L. A. (2007).
The worldwide prevalence of ADHD: A systematic review and metaregression
analysis. American Journal of Psychiatry, 164, 942-948.
Rangan, R., Nagendra, H. R., & Bhatt, R. (2009). Effect of yogic education system
and modern education system on sustained attention. International Journal of
Yoga, 2, 35.
Redfern, M. S., Jennings, J. R., Martin, C., & Furman, J. M. (2001). Attention
influences sensory integration for postural control in older adults. Gait &
Posture, 14, 211-216.
Ricard, M. (2006). Happiness: A guide to developing life’s most important skill. New
York, NY: Little, Brown and Company.
Riemann, B. L., & Lephart, S. M. (2002). The sensorimotor system, part II: The role
of proprioception in motor control and functional joint stability. Journal of
Athletic Training, 37, 80.
Ritchie, J. B., & Carruthers, P. (2015). The bodily senses. In Matthen, M. (Ed), The
Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Perception, (pp. 353-370). USA: Oxford
University Press.
Robertson, I. H., Manly, T., Andrade, J., Baddeley, B. T., & Yiend, J. (1997). 'Oops!':
Performance correlates of everyday attentional failures in traumatic brain injured
and normal subjects. Neuropsychologia, 35, 747-758.
Rummel, J., & Boywitt, C. D. (2014). Controlling the stream of thought: Working
memory capacity predicts adjustment of mind-wandering to situational demands.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 21, 1309-1315.
Schaap, T. S., Gonzales, T. I., Janssen, T. W. J., & Brown, S. H. (2015).
Proprioceptively guided reaching movements in 3D space: Effects of age, task
complexity and handedness. Experimental Brain Research, 233, 631-639.
Schandry, R. (1981). Heart beat perception and emotional experience.
Psychophysiology, 18, 483-488.
Seli, P. (2016). The attention-lapse and motor decoupling accounts of SART
performance are not mutually exclusive. Consciousness and Cognition, 41,
189-198.
Semple, R. J., Lee, J., Rosa, D., & Miller, L. F. (2010). A randomized trial of
mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for children: Promoting mindful attention to
enhance social-emotional resiliency in children. Journal of Child and Family
Studies, 19, 218-229.
Semple, R. J., Reid, E. F., & Miller, L. (2005). Treating anxiety with mindfulness: An
open trial of mindfulness training for anxious children. Journal of Cognitive
Psychotherapy, 19, 379-392.
Shum, S. B., & Pang, M. Y. (2009). Children with attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder have impaired balance function: Involvement of somatosensory, visual,
and vestibular systems. The Journal of Pediatrics, 155, 245-249.
Singh, N. N., Singh, A. N., Lancioni, G. E., Singh, J., Winton, A. S., & Adkins, A. D.
(2010). Mindfulness training for parents and their children with ADHD increases the children’s compliance. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 19, 157-166.
Slovacek, S. P, Tucker, S. A., & Pantoja, L, (2003). A study of the Yoga Ed program at
the Accelerated School. (Unpublished manuscript). California State University,
Los Angeles.
Smallwood, J., Davies, J. B., Heim, D., Finnigan, F., Sudberry, M., O'Connor, R., &
Obonsawin, M. (2004). Subjective experience and the attentional lapse: Task
engagement and disengagement during sustained attention. Consciousness and
Cognition, 13, 657-690.
Smallwood, J., Fishman, D. J., & Schooler, J. W. (2007). Counting the cost of an
absent mind: Mind wandering as an underrecognized influence on educational
performance. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14, 230-236.
Smallwood, J., McSpadden, M., & Schooler, J. W. (2008). When attention matters:
The curious incident of the wandering mind. Memory & Cognition, 36,
1144-1150.
Smyth, M. M., & Mason, U. C. (1998). Use of proprioception in normal and clumsy
children. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 40, 672-681.
Taylor-Piliae, R. E., Newell, K. A., Cherin, R., Lee, M. J., King, A. C., & Haskell, W.
L. (2010). Effects of Tai Chi and Western exercise on physical and cognitive
functioning in healthy community-dwelling older adults. Journal of Aging and
Physical Activity, 18, 261.
Teasdale, N., & Simoneau, M. (2001). Attentional demands for postural control: The
effects of aging and sensory reintegration. Gait & Posture, 14, 203-210.
Telles, S., Hanumanthaiah, B., Nagarathna, R., & Nagendra, H. R. (1993).
Improvement in static motor performance following yogic training of school
children. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 76, 1264-1264.
Teng, S. C., & Lien, Y. W. (2016). What Confucius practiced is good for your mind:
Examining the effect of a contemplative practice in Confucian tradition on
executive functions. Consciousness and Cognition, 42, 204-215.
Tsang, W. W., & Hui-Chan, C. W. (2003). Effects of tai chi on joint proprioception
and stability limits in elderly subjects. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise,
35, 1962–1971.
Turner, M. L., & Engle, R. W. (1989). Is working memory capacity task dependent?
Journal of Memory and Language, 28, 127-154.
Vries, M., Prins, P. J., Schmand, B. A., & Geurts, H. M. (2015). Working memory and
cognitive flexibility‐training for children with an autism spectrum disorder: A
randomized controlled trial. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 56,
566-576.
Wayne, P. M., & Kaptchuk, T. J. (2008). Challenges inherent to T’ai Chi research:
Part I – T’ai Chi as a complex multicomponent intervention. Journal of
Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 14, 95-102. doi:
10.1089/acm.2007.7170A
World Health Organization (1992). International statistical classification of diseases
and related health problems. Tenth edition volume 1 ICD-10. Geneva: World
Health Organization.
Xu, D., Hong, Y., Li, J., & Chan, K. (2004). Effect of tai chi exercise on
proprioception of ankle and knee joints in old people. British Journal of Sports
Medicine, 38, 50-54.
Zeidan, F., Johnson, S. K., Diamond, B. J., David, Z., & Goolkasian, P. (2010).
Mindfulness meditation improves cognition: Evidence of brief mental training.
Consciousness and Cognition, 19, 597-605.