Mindfulness as a potential intervention for stimulus over-selectivity in older adults.

McHugh et al. (2010) asked if a short mindfulness exercise could widen attention in older adults.

They ran a lab task that usually makes people pick just one part of a picture. One group first listened to a five-minute focused-breathing clip. The other group sat quietly. Then both groups did the picture task.

The mindfulness group spread their attention across more parts of the picture. The quiet group stayed narrow.

Five minutes of simple breathing cut over-selectivity right away.

Farmer-Dougan et al. (1999) fixed over-selectivity by prompting clients to point to every item. Their method works during teaching, but it needs extra prompts. Mindfulness gives a prompt-free boost.

Green et al. (2020) later stretched the idea to kids with autism. They used eight weeks of class mindfulness and saw better focus. Louise shows even a tiny dose can work in adults.

Gomes‐Ng et al. (2023) found that fading the big cue only helps people who are very over-selective. Mindfulness may give those same people a gentler first step before cue fading.

You can open a session with one short breathing track. It may help older learners or highly over-selective clients notice more cues during matching or sorting tasks. No extra materials, no prompts to fade—just five calm minutes that set up wider stimulus control. Try it before discrimination training and watch if choices broaden.