Mindfulness and music interventions in the workplace: assessment of sustained attention and working memory using a crowdsourcing approach
Axelsen JL, Meline JSJ, Staiano W, Kirk U
BMC psychology · 13 citations
How it was studied
- Design
- Randomized controlled trial (indexed by PubMed)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Health markers and function
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Independent funding
Based on full-text disclosure statement.
Publication
- Published
- 2022-04-27 · BMC Psychol · vol. 10 · issue 1 · p. 108
- Publisher
- BioMed Central
- Cited
- 30 citations · more than 96% of similar papers · 5.0× the field average
- Impact
- Top 10% most cited in its field
- References
- 70 works
- Access
- Open access (journal) · CC-BY
- Research areas
- Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions · Music Therapy and Health · Emotion and Mood Recognition
- Keywords
- Mindfulness, Crowdsourcing, Psychology, Psychological intervention, Cognitive psychology, Applied psychology, Psychological research, Working memory, Psychotherapist, Social psychology, Cognition, Computer science, World Wide Web, Neuroscience
- MeSH
- humans, meditation, music therapy, stress, psychological, memory, short-term, attention, music, crowdsourcing, mindfulness
4 authors
From DK, ES
- Johanne Lundager AxelsenUniversity of Southern Denmark
- Jacob Stig Jarnot MelineUniversity of Southern Denmark
- Walter StaianoUniversitat de València
- Ulrich Kirk · correspondingUniversity of Southern Denmark
Abstract
Background
Occupational stress has huge financial as well as human costs. Application of crowdsourcing might be a way to strengthen the investigation of occupational mental health. Therefore, the aim of the study was to assess Danish employees' stress and cognition by relying on a crowdsourcing approach, as well as investigating the effect of a 30-day mindfulness and music intervention.
Methods
We translated well-validated neuropsychological laboratory- and task-based paradigms into an app-based platform using cognitive games measuring sustained attention and working memory and measuring stress via. Cohen's Perceived Stress Scale. A total of 623 healthy volunteers from Danish companies participated in the study and were randomized into three groups, which consisted of a 30-day intervention of either mindfulness or music, or a non-intervention control group.
Results
Participants in the mindfulness group showed a significant improvement in the coefficient of sustained attention, working memory capacity and perceived stress (p < .001). The music group showed a 38% decrease of self-perceived stress. The control group showed no difference from pre to post in the survey or cognitive outcome measures. Furthermore, there was a significant correlation between usage of the mindfulness and music app and elevated score on both the cognitive games and the perceived stress scale.
Conclusion
The study supports the nascent field of crowdsourcing by being able to replicate data collected in previous well-controlled laboratory studies from a range of experimental cognitive tasks, making it an effective alternative. It also supports mindfulness as an effective intervention in improving mental health in the workplace.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher (CC BY).
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