Hedy Kober | Mindfulness: Towards Psychological and Neural Mechanism

Institute of Personality and Social Research Colloquium

Mindfulness is rooted in an ancient Buddhist tradition, and can be operationalized as a two component process: Attention that is directed towards present moment experience, coupled with an attitude that is open, curious, and accepting of this moment exactly as it is. In this talk I will describe how we use this operationalization in ongoing research towards understanding the mechanisms and outcomes of mindfulness. I will specifically give examples across multiple time resolutions or "doses" of mindfulness: from using mindfulness as an in-the-moment emotion regulation strategy, through one's first encounter with a 10-minute meditation practice, several weeks of mindfulness-based treatments, and years of intensive meditation practice.

Hedy is a dually-trained clinical psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist. After over a decade at Yale, she recently joined the department of Psychology at UC Berkeley, and is super excited about it.