Improvement of Attention in Elementary School Students through Fixation Focus Training Activity.

The attentional problems of school children are a crucial topic due to abundant information in this digital era. There are five attention dimensions for children: focused attention, sustained attention, selective attention, alternating attention, and divided attention. Focused training is a traditional method of improving attention ability. Subjects are required to focus on a fixed point for an extensive period without blinking and to perceive small objects as large. This study investigates which types of attention indicators are influenced by focus training. Eighty-two grade five and six elementary school students (45 experiment group, 37 control group) were involved. The experiment group underwent focus training for 12 weeks. The training was conducted once per week, and the Attention Scales for Elementary School Children were used before and after the training to examine the children's attention. The percentile rank scores of five attention dimensions and the total attention scale were evaluated. The results gave difference data, defined as post-test results minus the pretest results, where significant differences occurred for the total scale (p < 0.05), focused attention (p < 0.05), and selective attention (p < 0.01). Participants also noted that the training helped them improve concentration during school lessons (54.15%), fall asleep (29.1%), and relax the body (8.4%).

Meditation Practice Improves Short-Term Changes in Heart Rate Variability.

BACKGROUND: It is well known that meditation improves the physical and psychological condition of its practitioners. This study investigated the heart rate variability response of meditation practitioners in two Chan master teaching environments, namely face-to-face and video classes. METHODS: Experimental sessions were conducted, one featuring face-to-face classes and the other featuring video classes. The difference in participants' physiological parameters (blood pressure and heart rate variability) between the two experimental sessions was determined. In the first session, physiological parameters were recorded twice, before and after one teaching course, and the second session took place one month after the first. The first and second sessions had 45 and 27 participants, respectively. Those involved in the first experiment had no experience with meditation, whereas participants in the second experiment had practiced meditation for an average of 9 years (range = 1 to 27 years). Both experiments were conducted once a week, with each session lasting 1.5 h. RESULTS: For both experiments, both heart rate and heart rate variability by age significantly decreased after one teaching course. CONCLUSIONS: Chan meditation practitioners benefit from receiving both face-to-face and video class teaching from a Chan master.