Introduction and Purpose
Emergency situations often trigger immediate responses without careful consideration, increasing human error (Ueda et al., 2015). While long-term mindfulness meditation improves well-being (Anderson et al., 2007), no studies have examined whether brief mindfulness meditation can reduce human error during emergencies. This study experimentally investigated these effects.
Method
Thirty-six university students (26 males, 10 females; mean age = 21.92 years) were randomly assigned to mindfulness meditation or audiobook control groups. Before computer -based task, participants listened to 8-minute guided meditation or audiobook reading. They performed dual tasks: (1) a primary water pipe rotation task requiring efficient clicks to direct water flow to specific light bulbs, and (2) a secondary attention task responding to a gorilla image appearing every 10 seconds. Task difficulty was set at two levels (low/high) based on the minimum number of clicks required for completion. Tasks were conducted under control conditions or high arousal emergency simulation with warning lights, alarm sounds , wind pressure, 100-second time limit, and monetary penalty threats. Design: 2×2×2 mixed factorial with intervention group (between-subjects) and arousal condition/difficulty level (within-subjects).
Results
Analysis revealed significant mindfulness effects on multiple performance measures. Compared to the control group, participants in the mindfulness group completed the primary task using significantly fewer clicks — particularly under high-difficulty conditions (p < .05) — indicating greater task efficiency. For secondary tasks, they demonstrated significantly faster reaction times (p < .01) and fewer false alarms (p < .05), with trends toward lower miss rates (p < .10). These improvements occurred even under emergency-like conditions.
Conclusions
Brief mindfulness meditation effectively reduced human error and improved performance during complex dual-task situations under emergency conditions. The 8-minute intervention enhanced both task efficiency and attention allocation, suggesting that brief mindfulness practices can serve as practical interventions for human error reduction in high-stress occupational environments.