| Mind-wandering has been linked to reductions in mood as well as performance decrements on a variety of tasks, including reading comprehension. The present study sought to evaluate whether the Attention Training Technique (ATT; Wells, 2007) could induce an elevated state of mindful awareness capable of moderating the deleterious affective and behavioral consequences of mind-wandering in a non-clinical sample. Participants randomly assigned to receive the ATT ( n = 21) reported significantly more mindful state awareness and more positive mood from pre- to post-induction relative to an active placebo ( n = 22). Furthermore, participants who received the ATT exhibited substantially fewer instances of off-task thinking measured covertly during a word-by-word text progression task than did those who received the placebo. Though between-group differences in post-text reading comprehension quiz scores were not significant, this result may be attributable to flaws in the research instrument. These findings collectively represent the first empirical validation of the ATT as a mindfulness inductor and attest to its capacity to effect meaningful reductions in mind-wandering frequencies and significant elevations in mood after only a single application. Implications of these results for current theory and clinical practice are discussed. |
