[notJim]

> Meditation is the focused practice of resisting distraction.

So is actually practicing resisting distraction in vivo, except that it's directly applicable. You're argument is exactly the “of course it does!” argument that your parent was referring to.

Without studies, we don't actually know whether the skills in resisting distraction during meditation actually transfer to other situations.

To quote your parent:

One cannot just say things over and over to make them true.

[disgruntledphd2]

OK, I would think (based on years of on off practice) that the effects of meditation do generalise to other situations.

Here's an RCT that suggests that meditation is effective over and above relaxation in producing positive states of mind. http://www.springerlink.com/content/720772266xj33972/ Here's a more directly related study which showed that meditators showed greater ability to focus attention than did controls: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13674679908406332 Finally - a randomised controlled trial of the effects of mindfulness meditation on attention showing that mindfulness is more effective than progressive relaxation training in building up the four components of attention: http://www.springerlink.com/content/617t1648164627q4/

This was extremely trivial to find (two google scholar searches, one on meditation and distraction (first link) and the second on meditation and attention (second and third links). The first and third links have open access papers linked from Google Scholar if you would like to know more.

[acous]

> Without studies, we don't actually know whether the skills in resisting distraction during meditation actually transfer to other situations.

From my own limited experience it does indeed generalise to all situations, the scientific evidence for that hypothesis is building (some links to studies can be found above). It does become self-evident if you meditate regularly for a while though. It shouldn't take long to at least get a feel for how it works if not a clear demonstration of the principle that the studies can only hint at.