Mindful learning was used in an experimental study to investigate the idea that this type of learning can be a complementary method to improve connectedness to nature. Mindful learning is based on a style of thinking that typically conflicts with one's fixed mindset that is counterproductive to aspects of problem solving. One hundred and thirty-four Chinese students, ranging in age from 17 to 27 years, participated in the experiment.
Participants were randomly assigned to a mindfulness or a mindlessness group. The mindfulness materials were designed to engage participants in a situation in which they could attend to a similar situation from a different perspective in order to break their traditional mindset. The tasks included categorization, free association and multi-perspective thinking. The materials for the mindlessness condition consisted of true or false, completion, and multi-perspective thinking tasks.
All participants first completed the Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS) to obtain baseline measurements and then engaged with either the mindfulness or mindlessness materials for approximately 15 minutes. Following this activity, participants completed the Langer Mindfulness Scale (LMS) to assess individual differences in propensities to be mindful. Finally, as a posttest, all participants completed the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and the Inclusion of Nature in the Self Scale (INS). All procedures were completed in Chinese.
The mindfulness and mindlessness groups differed significantly on the LMS after the learning activity, indicating that mindful learning was effective and that the mindfulness group had a greater propensity to be mindful. Post test results indicated that participants in the mindful-learning condition performed better on the Implicit Association Test in associating themselves with nature and scored higher on the Inclusion of Nature in the Self Scale. As stated by the researchers, these results provide empirical evidence that mindful learning may promote connectedness to nature, both implicitly and explicitly. They therefore suggest that mindful learning be considered a complementary method in the field of environmental protection.
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