Right. I’m hoping for a sudden increase in performance for some task. I’m also skeptical of Dual N-Back, as it’s hard to imagine suddenly getting better at it. But I can picture, e.g., an “attentional blink” task quickly go from “impossible” to “possible”.
Or of course, meditation is a gradual process and all effects are gradual and can be trained independently, and I don’t see much.
I just… wouldn’t feel like a proper scientist if I didn’t test it.
Oh, yes, in retrospect that’s exactly how you should measure this! However, I think taking full weeks off of meditation would jeopardize my chances of seeing benefits, and I’m not willing to do that. But I will alternate doing tests before and after meditating, as a smaller weaker version of the same idea.
Right. I’m hoping for a sudden increase in performance for some task. I’m also skeptical of Dual N-Back, as it’s hard to imagine suddenly getting better at it. But I can picture, e.g., an “attentional blink” task quickly go from “impossible” to “possible”.
Or of course, meditation is a gradual process and all effects are gradual and can be trained independently, and I don’t see much.
I just… wouldn’t feel like a proper scientist if I didn’t test it.
Would suggest using n = 1 methodologies. For example, switch between meditating every day for one week, then a week of not meditating. See: http://media.sethroberts.net/blog/pdf/2012-09-24-The-Growth-of-Personal-Science-Implications-For-Statistics.pdf
Oh, yes, in retrospect that’s exactly how you should measure this! However, I think taking full weeks off of meditation would jeopardize my chances of seeing benefits, and I’m not willing to do that. But I will alternate doing tests before and after meditating, as a smaller weaker version of the same idea.