This sounds cool, and I am interested in what you discover.
A problem I can see with doing this as a single-person experiment is that tests like Dual N-Back also function to improve your attention and working memory as you practice them, so improvement over time would be expected whether you were meditating or not.
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.
This sounds cool, and I am interested in what you discover.
A problem I can see with doing this as a single-person experiment is that tests like Dual N-Back also function to improve your attention and working memory as you practice them, so improvement over time would be expected whether you were meditating or not.
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.