Table 1 Study Hypotheses
Outcomes | Variable | Measure | Â | Hypothesis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Primary | Mindfulness | Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire | 1 | Mindfulness will increase more for the mindfulness meditation (MM) group than for the sham meditation (SM) group from baseline to follow-up |
| Â | Critical Thinking | Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment1, Heuristic and Biases items2 | 2 | Critical thinking will increase more for the MM group than for the SM group from baseline to follow-up (a 1,2) and this effect will be moderated by baseline endorsement of thinking dispositions (b1,2) |
| Â | Thinking Dispositions | Actively Open-minded Thinking1, Need for Cognition2 | 3 | Endorsement of critical thinking dispositions will increase more for the MM group than for the SM group from baseline to follow-up (a 1,2) |
| Â | Executive Control | Sternberg Working Memory Task | 4 | Executive control will increase more for the MM group than for the SM group from baseline to follow-up (a) and this increase will mediate the relationship between levels of mindfulness and critical thinking performance following the intervention (b) |
Secondary | Wellbeing | Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale | 5 | Wellbeing will increase more for the MM group than for the SM group from baseline to follow-up |
| Â | Positive Affect and Negative Affect | Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule subscale | 6 | Positive affect will increase more and negative affect will decrease for the MM group than for the SM group from baseline to follow-up (a) |
| Â | Real-world Outcomes | Real-world Outcomes Inventory | 7 | Negative real-world outcomes will decrease more for the MM group than for SM group from baseline to follow-up |
Manipulation Checks | Meditation Quality | Practice Quality-Meditation | 8 | Meditation quality will be positively associated with increases in mindfulness (a), executive control (b) and critical thinking (c 1,2) and meditation quantity (d), task enjoyment (e) and task difficulty (f) and it will be higher in the MM group and across time. |
| Â | Meditation Quantity | Total Number of Completed Meditation Sessions | 9 | Meditation quantity will be positively associated with increases in mindfulness (a), executive control (b) and critical thinking (c 1,2) and meditation quality (d), task enjoyment (e) and task difficulty (f) and will not differ across groups. |
| Â | Task Enjoyment | Technology Acceptance Model Questionnaire Perceived Enjoyment subscale | 10 | Task enjoyment will be positively associated with increases in mindfulness (a), executive control (b) and critical thinking (c 1,2) and meditation quality (d), meditation quantity (e) and task difficulty (f) and will not differ across time or groups. |
| Â | Task Difficulty | Technology Acceptance Model Questionnaire Perceived Ease subscale | 11 | Task difficulty will be positively associated with increases in mindfulness (a), executive control (b) and critical thinking (c 1,2) and meditation quality (d), meditation quantity (e) and task difficulty (f) will not differ across time or groups. |
| Â | Intervention Acceptability | Satisfaction items from Kirkpatrick et al. (2013) [84] | 12 | Intervention acceptability will be positively associated with increases in mindfulness (a), executive control (b) and critical thinking (c 1,2) and meditation quantity (d), task enjoyment (e) and task difficulty (f) and it will be higher in the MM group but will not differ across time. |
| Â | Attrition | No. of participants lost from baseline to follow-up | 13 | Attrition will be negatively associated with meditation quality (a), meditation quantity (b), task enjoyment (c) and task difficulty |