Perceptual and Motor Skills, 2010, 110, 3, 1139-1148.

© Perceptual and Motor Skills 2010

LONG-TERM VIHANGAM YOGA MEDITATION

AND SCORES ON TESTS OF ATTENTION1

RAVI PRAKASH
Department of Psychiatry
Ranchi Institute of Neuropsychiatry and Allied Sciences
Kanke, Ranchi, India

INDU DUBEY, PRIYADARSHEE ABHISHEK, SANJEEV KUMAR GUPTA,

PRIYANKA RASTOGI, AND SHAZIA VEQAR SIDDIQUI
Department of Clinical Psychology
Central Institute of Psychiatry
Kanke, Ranchi, India

Summary.—Although the literature indicates that meditation has beneficial

effects on several aspects of human functioning, few studies have specifically in-
vestigated the effects of meditation on various domains of attention. This study
was conducted to examine the differences in various domains of attention between
long-term concentrative meditators versus matched controls. 15 practitioners of Vi-
hangam Yoga (> 10 yr. experience) were enrolled in the study. Controls matched on
age, sex, and years of education were recruited. Both groups were administered
the Stroop, Trail-Making, and Digit Symbol Substitution tests as well as the Digit
Forward and Digit Backward tests. The group of Vihangam Yogis had significantly
better mean performance on all tests of attention. Long-term Vihangam Yoga medi-
tation improves attention span, processing speed, attention alternation ability, and
performance in interference tests.

In the past decade, several published studies have documented the

effects of meditation on various aspects of health (Fortney & Taylor, 2010;
Ülger & Yagli, 2010). Meditation has been defined mostly as a practice of
self-regulation of attention by various procedures (Shapiro, 1982; Cahn &
Polich, 2006; Slagter, Lutz, Greischar, Francis, Nieuwenhuis, Davis, et al.,
2007). If the positive effects of meditative practices on health domains are
derived from attention-modulation procedures, the association of medita-
tion and attention is an interesting topic for cognitive scientists to explore
further. Such an exploration would also take us closer to understanding
the nature of attention itself. Surprisingly, the studies exploring the ef-
fects of meditation on attention are few (Jha, Krompinger, & Baime, 2007;
Tang, Ma, Wang, Fan, Feng, Lu, et al., 2007; Balaram & Nagendra, 2009;
Kumar & Telles, 2009; Moore & Malinowski, 2009) in comparison to the
many studies conducted on the effects of meditation on stress-related con-
ditions. Even fewer are the studies which have used neuropsychological
1
Address correspondence to Ravi Prakash, M.B.B.S., D.P.M., Senior Resident, Department
of Psychiatry, Central Institute of Psychiatry, Kanke, Ranchi, India or e-mail (drravi2121@
gmail.com).

DOI 10.2466/04.06.22.PMS.110.C.1139-1148 ISSN 0031-5125

1140 R. PRAKASH, ET AL.

procedures (Jha, et al., 2007; Balaram & Nagendra, 2009; Moore & Ma-
linowski, 2009; Subramanya & Telles, 2009). An important application of
such an exploration would be in elderly groups. Numerous studies have
shown that performance of older individuals deteriorates in a variety of
neuropsychological tasks of attention including the color-word Stroop
task (Cohn, Dustman, & Bradford, 1984; Brink & McDowd, 1999), Trails B
(Trail Making Test; Salthouse & Fristoe, 1995), and Wisconsin Card Sort-
ing Test (Kramer, Humphrey, Larish, Logan, & Strayer, 1994). Deteriora-
tion of attentional functions is integral to the aging process. However, giv-
en meditation’s improvement of aspects of attention, a logical speculation
will be that functioning of attention in the elderly may benefit from long-
term practice of concentrative meditation.
This study explored the Vihangam Yoga meditation technique.2 Med-
itators practicing this specific technique often report unique experiences
and drastic changes in their ways of thinking and emotions (Prasad, 1998;
Prakash, Haq, Prakash, Sarkhel, & Kumar, 2009). It is a concentrative med-
itation technique in which an individual focuses his attention on a particu-
lar point. The technique is a visual-concentrative method where the medi-
tators are asked to “see” a particular point continuously, without letting
the vision wander away from the point. The underlying principle as advo-
cated in this meditation is that the thoughts which act as noise in any form
of meditation are intimately coupled with vision. Thus, focussing vision
on a point is advocated as the best way to tackle the wandering of mind,
and thus reach a peaceful state. Initially, the point of focus is a physical ob-
ject, which is placed in front of the individual at the approximate distance
of the tip of the nose (Prasad, 1998). However, with practice, experienced
meditators report that the target point becomes clearer, and no external
object is needed so that the meditator can imagine the point in the outside
space. This is only a broad description, and the details of the method can
only be taught by authorised meditators from the Vihangam Yoga Sans­
than of Vedic Sciences, Allahabad, India.
The present study used neuropsychological tests to evaluate the long-
term effects of a concentrative meditation technique on attention.
Method
Participants
Participants in the Meditation group were 15 individuals (all men)
with more than 10 years experience in Vihangam Yoga meditation prac-
tice who were recruited for the study during a meeting of the meditators
conducted weekly. All the meditators recruited for the study were certi-
fied trainers of Vihangam Yoga meditation and were authorised by the Vi-
2
This is an ancient meditation technique of India, formalized by H. H. Sadguru Sadafal Deoji
Maharaj in the year 1924 and now being propagated by H. H. Sadguru Swatantra Deoji Ma-
haraj.
 YOGA MEDITATION AND ATTENTION 1141

hangam Yoga Vedic University, Allahabad, India, for teaching this medita-
tion technique. The participants provided written consent for the present
study after a complete explanation of the research purpose.
Participants in the Meditation group fulfilled the following criteria:
age older than 45 yr.; more than 15 yr. of education, i.e., graduation from
high school in the Indian education system; practice of the meditation
technique for at least the past 10 yr., with daily practice of the same for at
least 1 yr.; average daily time spent in meditation > 2.5 hr.; average time
spent at a stretch in meditation > 30 min. Exclusion criteria were a history
of any psychiatric illness in the past year; history of any neurological ill-
ness in the past year, which included any sort of head injury; Mini Mental
Status Examination score below 24; any indication of psychiatric signs as
revealed on the interview of Present State Examination–9.
Fifteen Control participants were recruited, matched with the Medita-
tion group participants on age, sex, years of education, and socioeconomic
status. The exclusion criteria were the same as for the Meditation group.
The men in both groups were employed, of middle socioeconomic status
(monthly income = Rs 20,000–25,000), and of urban background.
A comparison of age and years of education showed no differences
between groups. In the Meditation group, mean age was 52.9 yr. (SD = 7.3),
and in the Control group, 54.8 yr. (SD = 6.24; t28 = 0.26, ns). Years of educa-
tion were also similar in the two groups (Meditation: M = 16.7 yr., SD = 0.7;
Control: M = 16.6 yr., SD = 0.8; t28 = 1.0, ns). Performance on the Verbal
Adult Intelligence subtest of the Post Graduate Institute Battery of Brain
Dysfunction (PGI–BBD; see below) showed no significant group differ-
ence although the Verbal Quotient was slightly superior in the Medita-
tion group (Meditation: M = 98.21, SD = 3.34; Control: M = 95.78, SD = 4.68;
t28 = 1.637; p = .113).
Measures
Verbal intelligence.—All participants were administered the Verbal
Adult Intelligence subtest (VAIS) of the PGI–BBD to eliminate the intel-
ligence-related bias in the study. This test was used because it has been
standardised in the Indian population (Pershad & Verma 1990). The sub-
test measures performance on four tasks: (1) Information subtest, com-
prising a series of questions which assess the general knowledge of the in-
dividual; (2) Digit Span subtest, similar to the digit span test used in this
study, although scoring is different; (3) Arithmetic subtest, consisting of
tasks requiring simple calculations; and (4) Comprehension subtest, con-
sisting of tasks which require reasoning in situations as specified by the
questions. The Verbal Quotient on this test is calculated as the mean of
Test Quotients which are derived from the raw scores using the tables of
the PGI–BBD manual (Pershad & Verma 1990).
1142 R. PRAKASH, ET AL.

Digit Forward and Digit Backward.—The Digit Forward and Digit Back-
ward tests measure the span of attention, concentration, and mental con-
trol. Span of attention tasks measure the capacity of the individual to
process different loads of information. These tests were used from the We-
schler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS; Weschler, 1981). The test consists of
a string of digits, which are randomly picked from 0 to 9, so that no cal-
culation or serial association was present in the sequencing of the digits.
The participant is to repeat the sequence of digits from memory. The pre-
sentation was done in the Hindi language, as the first language is Hindi
in India.
Digit–Symbol Substitution Test.—The Symbol Digit Modalities Test re-
quires the rapid processing of symbolic information and the transcription
of numbers that are paired with the symbols on a tracking task. This test
has been assumed to measure the information processing aspect of atten-
tion (Smith, 1968; Joy, Fein, & Kaplan, 2003). More specifically, this test re-
quires selective attention for visual scanning, visuomotor coordination for
carrying out the task at high speed, and working memory for accuracy of
the task, to which attention is closely coupled (Weschler, 1981). The Digit–
Symbol Substitution Test was taken from the Weschler Adult Intelligence
Scale (Weschler, 1939).
Stroop test.—The Stroop interference test is the most well-known test
of the ability to inhibit distracters (Stroop, 1935; Nehemkis & Lewinsohn,
1972). It tests the ability of an individual to resist the interference created
by the actual color of the ink used to spell out the name of a color. The
slowing of responses due to incongruent color/name compared to congru-
ent color/name on the task, and the number of errors in the task, are indi-
cators of interference. The test consists of a booklet containing three pag-
es. Each page has 100 items, presented in 5 columns of 20 items. (a) The
Word page consists of the words “RED,” “GREEN,” and “BLUE” arranged
randomly and printed in black ink on a white 8.5" × 11" sheet of paper. No
word is allowed to follow itself within a column. (b) The Color page con-
sists of 100 items, all written as XXXX printed in either green, red, or blue
ink. (c) The Color–Word page consists of the words from the Word page
printed in the colors from the Color page so that the word is incongruent
with the ink color. The two pages are blended item for item: Item 1 from
the Color page to produce Item 1 on the Color–Word page to produce item
1 on the Color–word page, so that all the words on the third page are col-
or-incongruent (Golden & Freshwater, 2002). Administration of the test
was done as per the instructions provided in the Catalog No. 30150 of the
manual of the Stroop test (Golden & Freshwater, 2002). The participants
were asked to read the words on the Word page, name the colors on the
Color page, and name the colors on the Color–Word page as quickly as
 YOGA MEDITATION AND ATTENTION 1143

possible. The total time to read all the words on each page and the number
of errors on each page were recorded as the outcome measures of the tests.
Trail Making Test.—The Trail Making Test is one of the most common
tests used for the testing of response alternation ability (Reitan, 1958), also
known as switching. This test of executive functioning is a measure of vi-
sual scanning and attention which has a high sensitivity to damage to the
anterior regions of the brain (Lezak, 1983). The test consists of two parts:
Part A consists of encircled digits in ascending order semirandomly ar-
ranged in space; Part B consists of encircled digits and letters semiran-
domly arranged. In both these parts, the participant was asked to connect
the circles in sequence as quickly as possible. The administration and scor-
ing was done as per the instructions provided by Reitan (1958).
Procedure
All the tests were administered to the 30 participants by an investiga-
tor who is a clinical psychologist with 3 yr. of experience in psychological
testing. The investigator was blind regarding the group assignment of the
participants throughout the experiment. Recruitment and allotment of the
individuals for testing were done by a second investigator for the purpose
of elimination of bias. The tests were administered in the Clinical Psychol-
ogy Department of the Central Institute of Psychiatry, Kanke, Ranchi, In-
dia, after obtaining permission from the head of the department.
Results and Discussion
The present study was a cross-sectional comparative study, done
with the purpose of comparing the performances of meditators versus
nonmeditators on different parameters of attention. Four different tests
were used in the study, which have been used to assess different domains
of attention. As mentioned in the Introduction, an important purpose of
this study was to explore the effects of meditation on an older age group.
Although the criterion for recruitment in this study was age > 45 years,
which does not constitute a geriatric age group, deterioration of cognitive
functions above the age of 45 yr. has been well documented. For example,
the Digit Span subtest of the PGI–BBD, standardised in India, mentions
that the normative mean digit forward capacity for ages 20–29 years with
10 yr. of education is 6.1 (Table No. VQ 3) compared to the norm for ages
40–49 years at 5.5, and for 60–69 years around 5 digits (Pershad & Verma,
1990). Similarly, the normative Color–Word reading performance on the
Stroop test for persons with 15 yr. of education is 48 items in 60 sec. for age
20 yr. compared to 42 completed items at 45 yr. and 39 completed items
at 60 yr. (Golden & Freshwater, 2002). Most of the individuals recruited in
this study were > 50 yr. old (10/15 in the Meditation group and 11/15 in the
Control group), so that the mean age for the Meditation group was 52.9
1144 R. PRAKASH, ET AL.

yr. and 54.8 yr. for the Control group. Thus, the results can be seen as the
effects of meditation in individuals at older ages. This will provide a com-
parison for further studies focussing on aging individuals.
The results show that the Meditation group had a higher Digit Span
Forward capacity (M = 6.43, SD = 0.51) compared to the Control group
(M = 5.20, SD = 0.25; t28 = 6.28, p = .0004; Cohen’s d = 2.4), as well as Digit
Span Backward (Meditation: M = 5.06, SD = 0.5; Control: M = 4.7, SD = 0.45;
t28 = 1.91, p = .07; Cohen’s d = 0.73). A span of 7 + 2 is considered normal
(Miller, 1956). However, in the Control group, the performance on this
test was consistently around 5 or 6 digits. Although these scores are low
according to American standards, these findings are consistent with ear-
lier normative data for the Indian population obtained on the Digit Span
subtest of the PGI–BBD, where a mean score of 5.5 digits was found for
the 40–49 yr. age group with an education status of 10 yr. or more (Per-
shad & Verma, 1990). Normative data for the Indian population indicate
that older Indians could have digit span capacities on the lower end of the
U.S. normative range. More studies are needed with larger sample sizes
before it can be concluded that older Indians have lower digit span ca-
pacities. In comparison, the Meditation group had a higher mean Digits
Forward score, most completing 6 or 7 digits. Whether this difference was
due to the concentrative meditative practice is not known, but theoreti-
cally, a concentrative meditative practice can improve attention. Although
no significant group difference was found on the mean Digits Backward
test, the mean for the Meditation group was higher, and the effect size was
large. The Digits Forward and Digits Backward tests measure several as-
pects of cognitive functioning. It has been suggested that Digits Forward
is a task of short-term auditory memory, sequencing, and simple verbal
expression (Hale, Hoeppner, & Fiorello, 2002), while Digits Backward in-
volves working memory and mental flexibility (Lezak, 1995). In the con-
text of attention, the digit span tests have been suggested to tap more
complex attention or information processing (Larrabee & Curtiss, 1995).
Past studies have found that practice of mindfulness can improve per-
formance on recall capacity (Sharma, Das, Mondal, Goswami, & Gandhi,
2006; Chambers, Lo, & Allen, 2008). The results contribute to the literature
by adding results related to long-term practice of a concentrative medita-
tion technique, which could share attentional mechanisms with mindful-
ness and relaxation techniques in its effect on attention. If one considers
Cohen’s conceptualisation (1993) of digit span tests as measures of atten-
tion span, then the findings can be seen as consistent with that of Valentine
and Sweet (1999), where concentrative meditation practice was found to
improve sustained attention.
In the Stroop test, total time consumed for the performance of tasks
on the Word page and the Color–Word page (color-incongruent words)
 YOGA MEDITATION AND ATTENTION 1145

was significantly less in the Meditation group, with no significant differ-

ence in the errors committed by the two groups on either of these pages.
The significant differences obtained show that the Meditation group spent
significantly less time in reading the color names and colored names (see
Table 1). These results provide an interesting insight. Naming the ink col-
or of the color-incongruent color names requires control of attention so
that the automatic response arising from spontaneously reading the word
is inhibited and the color of the ink is named instead. Focussing atten-
tion on a point (as in Vihangam Yoga) may increase the ability of the in-
dividual to control visual distraction, which in this case could translate
to increased ability for prepotent inhibition. In addition, the significant-
ly lower time duration for reading color names on the Word page also
implies that automatic-response generation was higher in the Meditation
group. Similar findings have been demonstrated before where short-term
engagement in concentrative meditation enhanced performance speed on
color naming (Foris, 2005) or decreased automatic responses and reaction
times to all the three parts of the Stroop test (Wenk-Sormaz, 2005).
TABLE 1
Comparison of Total Performance Time (sec.) and Errors
by Meditation and Control Groups on Stroop Test Pages
Stroop Test Page Meditation Group Control Group t28 p Cohen’s d
(n = 15) (n = 15)
M SD M SD
Color, time 89.15 20.11 87.13 16.35 0.29 .77 0.11
Color, errors 1.00 0.89 1.93 1.43 −1.46 .16 0.81
Word, time 54.40 16.94 80.60 25.39 −3.32 .002 1.26
Word, errors 2.33 1.86 1.46 2.23 0.84 .41 0.44
Color–Word, time 138.9 40.13 182.00 28.13 −3.41 .002 1.29
Color–Word, errors 3.46 2.82 2.73 2.08 0.81 .43 0.30

Errors on both Trails A and Trails B of the Trail Making Test were not
significantly different between the two groups. However, the time taken
for the performance was significantly less in the Meditation group com-
pared to the Control group for both Trails A and Trails B. These differences
in performance indicate that the ability to switch attention was higher in
the Meditation group (see Table 2).
In the Digit Symbol Substitution Test, the number of correctly substi-
tuted digits was significantly higher in the Meditation group (M = 57.93,
SD = 8.24) as compared to the Control group (M = 37.06, SD = 7.65), al-
though neither group made any errors. As mentioned above, the test mea-
sures symbolic information processing and the transcription of numbers
that are paired with the symbols on a tracking task. This domain of at-
tention has been termed the information processing aspect of attention.
1146 R. PRAKASH, ET AL.

TABLE 2
Comparison of Scores For Meditation and Control Groups on Trail Making Test
Performance Meditation Group Control Group t28 p Cohen’s d
(n = 15) (n = 15)
M SD M SD
Trails A
Time 61.80 21.91 91.00 28.98 −3.11 .004 1.18
Errors 0.36 0.81 0.80 0.86 −1.31 .20 0.55
Trails B
Time 127.93 28.22 220.00 52.71 −5.96 .000 2.25
Errors 1.00 1.06 1.00 1.06 0.00 1.00 0.00

The magnitude of the group difference (t28 = 7.18, p = .003; Cohen’s d = 2.72)
indicates higher information processing speed in the Meditation group.
Yogic relaxation techniques have been shown to improve information
processing speed in some studies (Chattha, Nagarathna, Padmalatha, &
Nagendra, 2008; Balaram & Nagendra, 2009). However, no studies have
been conducted on a particular concentrative meditation technique.
Conclusion
The present study used four different neuropsychological tests to as-
sess domains of attention: attention span, attentional shifting, ability to
inhibit distracters, and information processing speed. In all these tests,
the group of long-term meditators performed significantly better than the
control group. This study suggests that long-term Vihangam Yoga con-
centrative meditation may improve attention in these domains. The re-
sults, while suggestive, could be the result of self-selection bias despite
the matching of groups on demographics. Only a longitudinal study can
answer these questions definitively.
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Accepted June 29, 2010.