Andrea Margaret Firth

Purpose: The number of mindfulness intervention projects is continually increasing. Within the educational environment, mindfulness has purported links to well-being, positive behaviour, educational and cognitive performance. Trait mindfulness is related to rational thinking and better performance in cognitive tests, suggesting that innate mindfulness ability contributes to self-regulation ability and thus the efficacy of mindfulness interventions. The current study investigates whether mindfulness is a moderating factor. It examines correlations between cognitive performance and trait mindfulness. The study investigates the influence of trait mindfulness on the ability of students to enter state mindfulness in an attempt to understand the role both types of mindfulness may have on cognitive performance. Participants and Method: Two-hundred and five male students aged fifteen and sixteen completed the adolescent version of the Mindfulness Awareness Scale, the Cognitive Reflection Test, and the Toronto Mindfulness Scale. Results: Hierarchical regression analysis found that state mindfulness was a predictor of cognitive reflection ability. ANOVA also found that having either trait or state mindfulness predicted higher cognitive reflection scores, but only state mindfulness had a significant effect on cognitive reflection. Trait mindfulness was not a moderating factor. Conclusion: Both state and trait aspects of mindfulness ability influence cognitive performance. Those with higher trait mindfulness ability are better able to enter state mindfulness and thus had better cognitive reflection scores. However, where it is possible to induce state mindfulness into those with low trait mindfulness, CRT scores were also higher although not significantly so.

Background: As technology becomes more sophisticated, more accessible methods of interpretating Big Data become essential. We have continued to develop Complexity and Entropy in Physiological Signals (CEPS) as an open access MATLAB^® GUI (graphical user interface) providing multiple methods for the modification and analysis of physiological data. Methods: To demonstrate the functionality of the software, data were collected from 44 healthy adults for a study investigating the effects on vagal tone of breathing paced at five different rates, as well as self-paced and un-paced. Five-minute 15-s recordings were used. Results were also compared with those from shorter segments of the data. Electrocardiogram (ECG), electrodermal activity (EDA) and Respiration (RSP) data were recorded. Particular attention was paid to COVID risk mitigation, and to parameter tuning for the CEPS measures. For comparison, data were processed using Kubios HRV, RR-APET and DynamicalSystems.jl software. We also compared findings for ECG RR interval (RRi) data resampled at 4 Hz (4R) or 10 Hz (10R), and non-resampled (noR). In total, we used around 190–220 measures from CEPS at various scales, depending on the analysis undertaken, with our investigation focused on three families of measures: 22 fractal dimension (FD) measures, 40 heart rate asymmetries or measures derived from Poincaré plots (HRA), and 8 measures based on permutation entropy (PE). Results: FDs for the RRi data differentiated strongly between breathing rates, whether data were resampled or not, increasing between 5 and 7 breaths per minute (BrPM). Largest effect sizes for RRi (4R and noR) differentiation between breathing rates were found for the PE-based measures. Measures that both differentiated well between breathing rates and were consistent across different RRi data lengths (1–5 min) included five PE-based (noR) and three FDs (4R). Of the top 12 measures with short-data values consistently within ± 5% of their values for the 5-min data, five were FDs, one was PE-based, and none were HRAs. Effect sizes were usually greater for CEPS measures than for those implemented in DynamicalSystems.jl. Conclusion: The updated CEPS software enables visualisation and analysis of multichannel physiological data using a variety of established and recently introduced complexity entropy measures. Although equal resampling is theoretically important for FD estimation, it appears that FD measures may also be usefully applied to non-resampled data.

Administrative and quality assurance processes underpin a significant proportion of sport and exercise psychology (SEP) consultancy. This chapter presents the Standards of Proficiency for Sports and Exercise Psychologists from two of the largest national bodies and international associations. It also outlines the process involved in setting up a service agreement with clients, keeping client records and the use of reflection and supervision to promote good practice. This chapter draws upon examples and reflections from ten practitioner consultants who shared details of their practice delivery, client record keeping, and their approaches to reflexivity, and supervision and endeavours to promote good practice.

This study examines whether twelve sessions of heart rate variability biofeedback training would improve vagally mediated heart rate variability. If so, it would go some way in explaining why breathing-based interventions reduce clinical symptoms and improve non-clinical performance outcomes. Methods: Thirty participants (N = 30, N_female = 13) aged 14–13-year-old, all talented athletes, from a sport specialist school in SE London UK, were randomly divided into three groups, a control group, a psychology skills training combined with heart rate variability biofeedback training group, and a heart rate variability biofeedback only group. For the combined group, a variety of typical psychological skill training techniques were also used. Results: Paired participant t-test and the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test found non-significant differences between pre- and post-intervention measurements of heart rate variability. Non-significant results remained even after pooling the biofeedback training groups (n = 19). Conclusions: Our results do not indicate that beneficial effects associated with focused breathing training can be attributed to improved vagal tone. Further investigation into the underlying mechanisms of the benefits of focused breathing techniques is necessary to maximize clinical and non-clinical outcomes.

Purpose: This study seeks to understand the mediating effects of mindfulness on self-efficacy, academic performance and ability to cope with pain. It further examines the effect of mindfulness on the capacity to cope with pain-induced stress. Whilst there are physiological changes which occur due to mindfulness, it is still not clearly understood how the mechanisms behind mindfulness work or whether the role of self-efficacy is an agent of mindfulness which may impact on performance and stress coping. Participants and methods: A three-part study (n=92) was conducted to test the relationship between mindfulness, self-efficacy and well-being factors, alongside academic performance in university students. Part one involved data collection one month prior to an experiment where trait scores for all factors were used to check pain and well-being behaviors. Part two consisted of participant randomization into three intervention groups (control, sham, mindfulness) and then an exposure to a fear induction task followed by cognitive tasks. The third part consisted of investigating the effect of a short mindfulness intervention on self-efficacy, pain and well-being in students. Results: The results indicate that self-efficacy had a positive effect on well-being factors (study 1 & 3) and in the experiment (study 2). Conclusion: Self-efficacy influenced pain intensity and pain unpleasantness and significantly predicted academic performance. Mindfulness had mixed results in how it influenced self-efficacy. While it influenced well-being and lowered stress (study 1 & 2) in the long term, the mindfulness intervention significantly decreased self-efficacy.