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COG SCI C100 EXAM BUNDLE DEAL
Why study mindfulness? - .....ANSWER... ✔✔
Meditation can be used to treat psychological disorders,
physical conditions, and slow cognitive decline
associated with normal aging.
Awareness and acceptance - .....ANSWER... ✔✔ The
attitude that mindfulness therapies aim to cultivate:
accepting and being aware of whatever feelings,
thoughts, experiences may arise in the moment.
Evidence that awareness of negative emotions reduces
their intensity - .....ANSWER... ✔✔ fMRI study by
Lieberman et al (2007): participants asked to identify
emotions of people in photographs. Controls asked to
identify their gender. Labeling the emotion reduced
activity in the amygdala and increased activity in the
PFC relative to controls.
Spider phobia study:
participants with spider phobias who were exposed to
spiders were instructed to:
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1. label anxiety
2. think differently of the spider so it feels less
threatening
3. distract from the anxiety
4. no specific instruction (control)
When they returned to the lab on day 2 and 9, those
who labeled their emotions had lower physio. reactivity
to the spiders. The more the fear was labeled and
verbalized, the less physio. fear they exhibited.
What is step one of mindfulness? - .....ANSWER... ✔✔
Focused meditation:
allows us to calm "monkey mind" and to connect with
suchness of experience, which produces a general sense
of OKness
Calm Abiding Practice - .....ANSWER... ✔✔ relaxed
connection with the object of concentration, be present
with the object. Allows you to find the non-moving mind.
Stilling the eyes is a way of stilling the mind.
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4 standard meditation poses - .....ANSWER... ✔✔
sitting, lying down flat on back, standing, and walking
Sit alone with thoughts study - .....ANSWER... ✔✔
Participants asked to sit in a chair, without a device or
book and without falling asleep, for 6-15 min.
Given option to self-administer electric shocks rather
than sit alone with thoughts.
67% of men and 25% of women did just that.
Relationship between attention and happiness -
.....ANSWER... ✔✔ Participants were texted at
random times throughout the day: what are you doing
now? where is your mind right now (focused on what
you're doing or elsewhere)? How happy or unhappy are
you at this very moment?
Results: average American adult spends 47% of waking
life not paying attention to what they're doing.
When they were not paying attention, they were
significantly less happy.
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Meditation and the Default Mode Network -
.....ANSWER... ✔✔ Meditation has been associated
with relatively reduced activity in the default mode
network, a brain network implicated in self-related
thinking and mind wandering
Mindfulness as a two-part process - .....ANSWER...
✔✔ 1. Calm-abiding process: connects you with
suchness of things.
2. Mindfulness/awareness of the present moment with
acceptance: judgment melts away and cognition is
unlimited by negative emotions. There is a cognition that
everything is as it should be.
Mindfulness - .....ANSWER... ✔✔ When a thought
arises, note:
1. how it manifests in your body
2. how it manifests in your energy (i.e. emotionally)
3. whether it is a positive, negative, or neutral thought
Integration of body and mind - .....ANSWER... ✔✔
Meditation helps us physicalize the mind, so that when
we have a negative thought, we can actually feel it
almost as something physically pulling us off center. This
COG SCI C100 EXAM BUNDLE DEAL
Why study mindfulness? - .....ANSWER... ✔✔
Meditation can be used to treat psychological disorders,
physical conditions, and slow cognitive decline
associated with normal aging.
Awareness and acceptance - .....ANSWER... ✔✔ The
attitude that mindfulness therapies aim to cultivate:
accepting and being aware of whatever feelings,
thoughts, experiences may arise in the moment.
Evidence that awareness of negative emotions reduces
their intensity - .....ANSWER... ✔✔ fMRI study by
Lieberman et al (2007): participants asked to identify
emotions of people in photographs. Controls asked to
identify their gender. Labeling the emotion reduced
activity in the amygdala and increased activity in the
PFC relative to controls.
Spider phobia study:
participants with spider phobias who were exposed to
spiders were instructed to:
,2|Page
1. label anxiety
2. think differently of the spider so it feels less
threatening
3. distract from the anxiety
4. no specific instruction (control)
When they returned to the lab on day 2 and 9, those
who labeled their emotions had lower physio. reactivity
to the spiders. The more the fear was labeled and
verbalized, the less physio. fear they exhibited.
What is step one of mindfulness? - .....ANSWER... ✔✔
Focused meditation:
allows us to calm "monkey mind" and to connect with
suchness of experience, which produces a general sense
of OKness
Calm Abiding Practice - .....ANSWER... ✔✔ relaxed
connection with the object of concentration, be present
with the object. Allows you to find the non-moving mind.
Stilling the eyes is a way of stilling the mind.
,3|Page
4 standard meditation poses - .....ANSWER... ✔✔
sitting, lying down flat on back, standing, and walking
Sit alone with thoughts study - .....ANSWER... ✔✔
Participants asked to sit in a chair, without a device or
book and without falling asleep, for 6-15 min.
Given option to self-administer electric shocks rather
than sit alone with thoughts.
67% of men and 25% of women did just that.
Relationship between attention and happiness -
.....ANSWER... ✔✔ Participants were texted at
random times throughout the day: what are you doing
now? where is your mind right now (focused on what
you're doing or elsewhere)? How happy or unhappy are
you at this very moment?
Results: average American adult spends 47% of waking
life not paying attention to what they're doing.
When they were not paying attention, they were
significantly less happy.
, 4|Page
Meditation and the Default Mode Network -
.....ANSWER... ✔✔ Meditation has been associated
with relatively reduced activity in the default mode
network, a brain network implicated in self-related
thinking and mind wandering
Mindfulness as a two-part process - .....ANSWER...
✔✔ 1. Calm-abiding process: connects you with
suchness of things.
2. Mindfulness/awareness of the present moment with
acceptance: judgment melts away and cognition is
unlimited by negative emotions. There is a cognition that
everything is as it should be.
Mindfulness - .....ANSWER... ✔✔ When a thought
arises, note:
1. how it manifests in your body
2. how it manifests in your energy (i.e. emotionally)
3. whether it is a positive, negative, or neutral thought
Integration of body and mind - .....ANSWER... ✔✔
Meditation helps us physicalize the mind, so that when
we have a negative thought, we can actually feel it
almost as something physically pulling us off center. This
