Creating a Contemplative Community (2024-2025)

This team investigated why minds wander, how this affects well-being and whether mindfulness can interrupt harmful cycles of thought. Focusing on perseverative negative thinking, repetitive, hard-to-control thoughts such as worry and rumination linked to depression and anxiety, the team conducted a multi-method randomized controlled trial using surveys, behavioral tasks and EEG data. Students at every level contributed to the process, from refining hypotheses and preparing stimuli to analyzing EEG recordings and leading independent projects.

Preliminary results suggest mindfulness may reduce negative, past-oriented thinking while preserving or enhancing adaptive forms such as future planning or freely moving thought. The team also found that changes in thought patterns may help explain reductions in psychological distress, offering new insight into how interventions can foster resilience. Alongside research outcomes, students gained hands-on training in EEG, open science and data visualization, presenting their work at conferences and building skills in collaborative, interdisciplinary research.

Timing

Fall 2024 – Spring 2025

Team Outputs

Mind the Gap: Is Mindfulness the Bridge between College Students & Mental Wellness? (Poster presentation at the Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Showcase, April 16, 2025)
 

See earlier related team, Creating a Contemplative Community: The Impact of Mindfulness on Student Well-Being (2023-2024).

Image: Weekly open mindfulness meditation at the Duke Wellness Center is open to the Duke community, by Jared Lazarus/Duke University