ABSTRACT
A basic assumption inherent in research on perceptual style is that the form and quality of deployment of attention will be manifested in particular perceptual styles or enduring response-dispositions. Meditators were permitted to undergo 3 mo. of practice of meditation while the nonmeditator-controls were instructed to simply "sit quietly" for 20 min. each morning. Administered perceptual style measures were the autokinetic effect, the embedded-figures test, and the rod-and-frame test which were given in that invariate sequence. Such a clear mandate of turning the attention inward would be expected to be indicated according to indices of perceptual style. Meditators and nonmeditators were compared on each of the 5 perceptual variables by means of the three-way analysis of variance of the least square method, equal Ns, fixed-effects model. Practitioners of Transcendental Meditation demonstrated a shift toward increased field-independence on 5 indices of perceptual style following 3 mo. of meditative practice.
