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The Effect of Meditation on the Academic Performance of African American CollegeStudentsAuthor(s): Pamela D. HallSource: Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Jan., 1999), pp. 408-415Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2668066 .

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THE EFFECT OF MEDITATION ONTHE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF

AFRICAN AMERICAN COLLEGESTUDENTS

PAMELA . HALLHampton niversity

With hedawnof henextmillenniumtarm'sength, anyndi-viduals re tartingoengagenpracticeshateadtoaltered tatesof consciousness. lteredtates f consciousness efer o statesother han he ormal aking tate,ncludingleep,meditation,hehypnoticrance,ndthedistortederceptionshatmaybecausedby he se of ertainrugsRathus, 997, .G1).Meditations one

suchprocess hat lters ne'sconsciousness. editations a sys-tematic arrowingf ttentionhat lows hemetabolismndhelpsproduce eelingsf relaxationRathus, 997,p. G13). There renumerous orms fmeditation,ith woofthemostusedbeingtranscendentalndEgyptian.hegoal sthe ame,yet he rocessis somewhat ifferent.

Transcendental editations a simplifiedormf FarEastern

meditationhatwasbroughto theUnited tates ytheMaharishiMaheshYogi n1959 Rathus, 997).Duringheprocess,n ndi-vidual epeatsndconcentratesnamantra. antras rewords rsounds hat re laimed ohave he apacityohelp neachieve nalteredtate f onsciousness.gyptian editationnvolvesocus-ing n andvisualizingnEgyptianymbolhat epresentscertainqualityrcharacteristic.hepurposeffocusingn the ymbols

toobtain particularoal e.g.,ward ffnemies,obring ealthrhappiness).t also involveshanting ords fpower hat orre-spondto the goal (Amen, 1990). Although heseformsof

JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES, Vol.29 No. 3, January999 408-415C 1999Sage Publications,nc.

408





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Hall/THE EFFECT OF MEDITATION 409

meditationaybeslightlyifferent,hey oth ncludehe ompo-

nents fproper reathingndposture.

GOALS OF MEDITATION

What rethe otentialenefitsfmeditation?hey renumer-ous. Theyrange rom educingnxiety o ncreasing ell-being,and from hereductionf psychologicalistress o the mprove-ment fcognition.nexcerptnPrevention agazine rom orkdonebyHarp ndFeldmann1997 ddresses henotion f 3min-utes o otal elaxation. hey xplainedourmeditationechniquesthat llow ne o witchtress romoverdriveo off' nustmin-utes.JonKabat-Zinn1997)stateshat reathingwareness, oga,andothermeditationechniques elp nreducinghe requencyfpanic ttacks.nresearchn meditationndtherapy,narticle yEpstein 1998) describes owpsychotherapynd meditationanhelpa personnmanaging ispowerfulmotions.urthermore,researchasbegun o xaminehe elationshipetweenmeditationandmemory,s well.This elationshipillbe the ocal oint f hisstudy.

MEDITATION AND MEMORY

Memorys the rocess ywhichnformationsencoded, tored,andretrievedRathus, 997).Memoryanbeaccessed iarecall rrecognitionasks.Recallrefersothe etrievalrreconstructionflearnedmaterialRathus, 997).Recognitioneferso dentifyingobjects revents ncounteredeforeRathus, 997).Todate, ev-

eralstudies aveshown hatmeditationas a positive ffect nmemory.ne study emonstratedhat hildrennpublic choolswhowere aughtomeditateisplayedn ncreasen cademic er-formanceChang& Hiebert, 989).Theresultsndpossiblempli-cationsf his tudyeach eyondhe ealm f chool-agehildren.Jangid, yas, ndShukla's 1988) studyf30normaldult ndi-vidualswhopracticedmeditationor 6-week eriod evealed





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410 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES /JANUARY 999

significantncreasenmemoryuotients. studynvolving3eld-

erly dults ound significantmprovementncognitivelexibilityamong hosewhopracticed editationAlexander,anger, ew-man,& Chandler, 989).

Canmeditationlsobe beneficialocollege tudents?f indi-viduals xperiencetress ssociatedwith eing ncollege, ouldmeditationlleviate ome f hat tress? ould his eadtoa reduc-tionntest nxiety,herebymprovingcademic erformance?o

date, esearchs imited ith egardo he otentialffectsfmedi-tation nmemory.oneof he bove-mentionedtudies sed col-legestudentample. hus, hepurposefthis esearchstostudythe ffectfmeditationncollege tudenterformance.hiswillbe donebyaddressinghe ollowingesearchuestions:

1. Willparticipantshomeditateor semesterersushosewhodonotmeditateave significantlyigheremesterrade ointver-

age GPA)?2. Willparticipantshomeditate ersushosewhodo notmeditate

have ignificantlyigherumulativePAs?

METHOD

PARTICIPANTS

Fifty-sixndergraduateshowere nrolledn n ntroductionopsychologyourse tHampton niversityarticipatedn he tudy.Theparticipantsere hosen romwo lassesof he ame ubject.Half f he articipantsn achclasswere andomlyssignedo hemeditationndno meditationroups. heir articipationerved o

fulfill course equirement.

PROCEDURE

Thestudyddresses he ffect fmeditationnacademic er-formanceuringfull emester. tthebeginningfthe emester,





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Hall /THE EFFECT OF MEDITATION 411

theparticipantserenformedhat heir articipationas neededfor semester-longxperiment.heywere old hat he xperimentinvolved he ffectffocused tudyroups n academic erform-ance.Theywere hen old heywouldhave have o meet wiceweekfor tudy ime. f hey greed oparticipate,heywere ivenconsent orm osign tthat ime. ncetheywere oldwhich f hetwo tudy roups hey ould e n, hey ere nformedf he ates,times,ndplacestheirespectiveroupswouldmeet.

Each of he tudy roupswasfacilitatedy wo pper-classsy-chologymajorswhowere nrolledn n ndependenttudy ourse.These tudentsad xperience ithmeditationndwenthroughperiod ffurtherrainingrioro he tartf he xperiment.uringthe irst eeting,he articipantsere iven nothereview fthepurposef he xperiment.hefirstroupmeditationroup)wasinstructedn a simplemeditationrocess hat onsisted fnaturalbreathingechniques, elaxation,nd attention-focusingech-

niques.Thiswaspracticedor durationf 10 minutestthe tartand nd f ach tudyession. he mountf imepenttudyingneachgroupwas 1 hour. hosewhoparticipatednthemeditationgroupwere sked ouse the rocesswhen heytudied ntheirwnandbeforeheywent otake test. he second roup nonmedita-tiongroup)met ndspent hour tudying.ll oftheparticipantswereaskednottodiscusswhat ccurreduring heir espective

groupswith heirlassmates. tthe ndofthe emester,lloftheparticipantseceived completeebriefing.

RESULTS

A one-factornalysis fvariance asperformedn the atafor

the all1994 umulative PAs.Theresultsf his nalysisevealedno significantifferencesetween he wogroups, = .811,p <.318. Themeanswere2.77 and 2.64 for hemeditationnd non-meditationroups, espectively.his illustrateshat hegroupswere venlymatchedt he tartf he xperimentsee Figure ).





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412 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES IJANUARY 999

3.0--

2.9--

2.8--

2.7--

2.6--

2.5--

2.4--

2.3--

2.2-

2.1 --

2.0Mediftaion NonMedtation

Group ype

Figure1: Fall SemesterGrade PointAverages s a Function fStudyGroup Type

SEMESTER ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

A one-factornalysis f variancewas conductedn thetwogroups' pringemester PAs.Thesefindingsielded significantdifferenceetweenroups,= 4.25,p< .041.ThemeansnFigure2 (2.85 and 2.55 for he meditationndnonmeditationroups,

respectively)how hat articipantshomeditatedor semesterhadsignificantlyigher PAsthan hosewhodidnotmeditate.

CUMULATIVE GPA

A one-factornalysis f variancewas conductedor hetwogroups' umulativePAsfor he pringemester.hefindingsf





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Hall THE EFFECT OF MEDITATION 413

3.0

2.9

2.8 - -

2.7

2.6

IL

11.

2.4

2.3

2.2

2.1

2.0Medtiation NonMedftafion

Groupype

Figure : Spring emester radePointAveragessaFunction f tudyGroupType

this nalysis ielded significantifferenceetween roups,=6.41,p < .014.

ThemeansnFigure 2.93and2.48forhemeditationndnon-meditationroups, espectively)howthat hestudents' verallacademic erformancencreased.

DISCUSSION

There s a great eal ofresearch n learningnd a prettyairamountnmeditation.heresveryittleyway fmeditationnd





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414 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES /JANUARY 999

3.0

2.9

2.8-

2.7--

2.6-

IL2.4--

2.3--

2.2--

2.1--

2.0ModM.Uo NonMedftaon

GroWpype

Figure : Spring emester umulativeGrade PointAveragess a Function fStudyGroup Type

consistent ith heresearch hathas beendone on theeffect fmeditationnmemoryChang Heibert,989;Jangidt l.,1988).

Theonefindinghat s mostnterestingsthedifferencen thecumulative PAs ofthe meditationroups.Not onlywere the

semester PAs of themeditationroup ignificantlyigherhanthenonmeditationroup,o were he umulative PAs.Whenweconsider hebroadermplicationsf this nformation,tmaybebeneficialothe ducationalystemn all levels.Therigid,ense,anxiety-filledemestershat tudents avecometo dreadmaybereplacedwithalm, elaxed essions edicatedooptimalearningandcognitive evelopmentor hosewhochoose oparticipate.f





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Hall/THE EFFECT OF MEDITATION 415

college tudentsan earnmore n a semester,hen heywill earnmorenthat

earswell as their ntire

cademic areer.Furthermore,hese indingsre consistent ith henotion fstate-dependentearning.tate-dependentearning uggests hatinformations betteretrievedn thephysiologicalremotionalstatenwhich twas encoded nd tored r earnedRathus, 997,p. 285).Thosewhomeditatedhile earninghemateriallso didsopriorotakinghe est. hismayhave een factorhatontrib-uted to theirmprovedecall of thetest nformation,herebyimprovingheGPAs.Before his anbeconclusivelytated,urtherresearchsnecessary.xpandinghe tudyo largeramplewouldincrease hegeneralizabilityf thefindings. owever,his tudyprovides goodbeginningor xaminingew echniquesimed timprovingcademic erformance.

REFERENCES

Alexander, . N., Langer, . J.,Newman, . I.,& Chandler, . M. (1989).Transcendentalmeditation,indfulnessnd ongevity:nexperimentaltudy ith he lderly.ournalofPersonalitynd SocialPsychology,7(6), 950-954.

Amen,R.U.N. 1990).MetuNeter:Thegreat racleofTehutind theEgyptianystem fspiritual ultivationVol. 1). NewYork:Khamit.

Chang,J.,& Heibert, . (1989). Relaxation rocedures ith hildren: review.Medical

Psychotherapy,n nternationalournal,, 163-176.Epstein,M. (1998,May/July).herapyndmeditation.sychology oday, 1(3),46.Jangid,.K.,Vyas,J.M., & Shukla, . R. (1988). The effectf he ranscendentaledita-

tion rogramn normalndividuals. ournalfPersonalitynd Clinical tudies, (2),145-149.

Kabat-Zinn,. 1997).Meditations.panic.Bottomlineealth, 1(1), 9.3 minuteso total elaxation.1997,September).revention agazine, 8(3), 148.Rathus, . (1997).The ssentials f sychology.ew York:Harcourt race.

PamelaD. Hall is a social psychologisthoseresearchnterests inthe rea ofsocial cognition.he is involvedn exploringherelationshipetweenmood ndmemory,he elationshipetween ttitudesowardapmusic ndpersonality,ndintragroupacism.he s currentlyn assistant rofessorfpsychologytHamptonUniversity.

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