Table 1.

Demographics. Differences in sex, work status, marital status and race were tested using Fisher’s exact tests. Highest completed level of education was tested using the Mann-Whitney test. Differences in age were tested using an independent samples t-test after testing for normality. N/A: not applicable.

	Novice (N=16)	Experienced (N=16)	P
Gender (male / female)	11/5	13/3	0.685
Age (mean with standard deviation in parentheses)	51 (14)	50 (14)	0.970
Handedness (right / non-right)	13/3	14/2	1.000
Highest level of completed education (college or university/graduate school )	6/10	4/12	0.453
Work status (full-time / part-time / homemaker / retired / unemployed / not in labor force (student)	9/3/1/2/1/0	12/2/0/1/0/1	0.648
Marital status (never married/married/living in permanent relationship/divorced)	1/11/2/2	5/6/3/2	0.231
Race (White / African American / Asian)	13/1/2	16/0/0	0.226
Meditation practice (vajrayana / theravada / mindfulness / zen / vedanta and mindfulness / zen and mindfulness / theravada and zen and mindfulness / theravada and zen and vajrayana / zen and contemplative)		5/3/2/1/1/1/1/1/1
Lifetime meditation practice hours (median, range)	N/A	9688 (2046–50978)