Effects of Transcendental Meditation on Rotary Pursuit Skill

Two groups of male subjects received a total of 7½-min practice on the pursuit rotor, with a day's rest following the first 5 min. The transcendental meditation (TM) group consisted of 15 volunteers who meditated twice daily and who had been practicing the technique for an average of 28 months. The other group consisted of 15 nonmeditators. The results did not support the expectations that the meditators would demonstrate superior learning and performance and less reactive inhibition than the nonmeditators. Indeed, it was found that in terms of performance, and of learning to a lesser degree, the meditators were significantly poorer. While there was some limited support for the expectation that meditators would exhibit less intra-individual variability, the trends for inter-individual differences indicated that the individual meditators became much less alike than did the nonmeditators when practice was resumed on the second day. It was concluded that certain benefits attributed to the practice of TM (such as greater within-subject consistency, less anxiety, increased alertness and awareness) are not apparent when a novel perceptual-motor skill is being learned. Instead, it appears that the effects of TM are detrimental to such performance.