Mindfulness Measures: 11 Assessments, Scales and Surveys

Mindfulness is a frequent focus at PositivePsychology.com, appearing in articles that define mindfulness, explain how it is used in therapy, and offer practice techniques for adults, children, and teens.

For many people, understanding and practicing mindfulness takes time and effort. Even more challenging can be the idea of measuring mindfulness.

Mindfulness—as being fully present and aware without judgment, worry, or rumination—can be a difficult concept to pin down.

How do researchers measure the extent to which someone notices, accepts, and stays present with their thoughts and feelings? Although it’s a complex task, several validated scales and questionnaires have been developed that provide useful ways to assess different aspects of mindfulness.

First Challenge: State vs. Trait Mindfulness

A central difficulty in measuring mindfulness is distinguishing state mindfulness from trait mindfulness. Mindfulness can be described both as a temporary state and as a more stable trait.

State

A state is a temporary mental condition that can change from moment to moment—examples include feeling curious, hopeful, or focused. State mindfulness refers to a short-term experience of present-centered awareness and acceptance.

Trait

Traits are relatively stable characteristics of personality, such as extraversion or impulsivity. Trait mindfulness describes a habitual tendency to be present, attentive, and nonjudgmental across situations.

Implication

Because mindfulness can be both situational and dispositional, different measures are needed depending on whether researchers or clinicians want to assess momentary experience or a person’s general mindful tendency.

Unique Challenges in Measuring Mindfulness

Measuring mindfulness raises two main problems: timing and self-report bias.

State Measurement Challenges

State mindfulness ideally describes what someone experiences right now, but most measures must be completed after the fact. Stopping to report a current experience disrupts being present, so assessments rely on recall about a recent practice session. Memory distortions and current mood can influence these retrospective reports.

Self-Report Issues

Most mindfulness scales use self-report. While useful and efficient, self-report is vulnerable to inaccurate recall and social desirability—respondents may unintentionally or intentionally report what they think is expected. For this reason, self-report scores are best interpreted alongside behavioral or observational data when possible.

Trait Measurement Challenges

Assessing trait mindfulness requires summarizing how often a person can enter mindful states. Capturing this general tendency through questionnaires can be difficult because the trait is inferred from many momentary experiences.

Despite these challenges, researchers have developed several reliable and valid scales that operationalize mindfulness in different ways. The sections below summarize widely used measures and what they assess.

Wheel of Awareness

The Wheel of Awareness is a model that can help conceptualize awareness as a component of mindfulness. It describes a central “hub” of qualities—receptive, clear, aware, open, peaceful, and calm—that support awareness.

From that hub, spokes extend to areas of experience: the five external senses, internal bodily sensations, mental activity, and a sense of interconnectedness. Practicing mindfulness can help people move from the hub into these spokes—bringing attention and nonjudgmental noticing to specific sensations, thoughts, or relationships.

MAAS: The Mindful Attention Awareness Scale

The Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), developed by Brown and Ryan (2003), treats mindfulness primarily as a trait involving attention and awareness.

MAAS contains 15 items about how frequently people experience lapses of attention or automatic, mindless behavior. Responses typically use a frequency scale. Higher scores indicate greater mindfulness (fewer lapses), while lower scores suggest more frequent mindlessness. The MAAS is widely used because it is simple, reliable, and well-validated against related constructs.

Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire

The Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) was developed by Baer and colleagues (2006). It measures five dimensions of trait mindfulness:

• Nonreactivity to inner experience
• Observing sensations, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings
• Acting with awareness (vs. automatic pilot)
• Describing or labeling internal experiences
• Nonjudging of experience

Items are rated for how accurately they describe a person’s general tendencies. The FFMQ is multi-dimensional and has shown good reliability and meaningful correlations with related psychological traits.

Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale-Revised

The Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale-Revised (CAMS-R) views mindfulness as including attention, present-focus, awareness, and acceptance. It has 12 items rated for frequency or agreement. The CAMS-R captures multiple components of mindfulness and correlates with other established mindfulness measures and relevant cognitive outcomes.

Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory

The Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (FMI) was designed with close ties to classical contemplative descriptions of mindfulness. It emphasizes attention regulation, open awareness, and curiosity. The short FMI is a unidimensional 14-item scale rated by frequency; it is intended to capture a general trait-like mindfulness consistent with a contemplative perspective.

Langer Mindfulness Scale

The Langer Mindfulness Scale takes a socio-cognitive approach. It defines mindfulness with four characteristics: novelty seeking, engagement, novelty producing, and flexibility. Versions include 14- and 21-item formats. The LMS connects mindfulness to creativity, learning, and workplace outcomes.

Solloway Mindfulness Survey

The Solloway Mindfulness Survey (SMS) is positioned between state and trait measures: it gauges mindfulness as a developing skill or capacity. With 30 items, it was created to track students’ progress as they learn and practice mindfulness. Higher scores reflect greater experiential knowledge and integration of mindfulness over time.

Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills

The Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills (KIMS) assesses four practical skills: observing, describing, acting with awareness, and accepting without judgment. It was designed to be accessible to casual meditators and uses straightforward language. Scores on subscales and the full scale reflect strengths and areas for development in mindfulness skill.

Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire

The Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ) is different from the mindfulness measures above: it assesses the frequency of automatic negative thoughts related to depression. Because frequent negative automatic thoughts are a form of mindlessness, the ATQ can be a useful complementary measure for understanding cognitive patterns that mindfulness practice seeks to change.

How to Measure Present Moment Awareness

State measures aim to capture mindfulness during or immediately after a specific practice. Three widely used state-focused instruments are summarized below.

Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale

The Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale (PHLMS) measures two orthogonal components: present-moment awareness and acceptance. It contains 20 items rated for frequency and is useful for examining mindfulness experienced during recent practices.

State Mindfulness Scale

The State Mindfulness Scale (SMS) was developed to capture short-term mindfulness after a practice session. It reflects attention self-regulation and an orientation of curiosity, openness, and acceptance. Respondents rate items in reference to a limited time window (for example, the past 15 minutes), making the SMS suitable for session-by-session assessment.

Toronto Mindfulness Scale

The Toronto Mindfulness Scale (TMS) was designed to assess mindfulness as a state during practice, emphasizing curiosity and decentering. It contains items that ask respondents how much they experienced specific qualities during a recent practice, providing insight into momentary shifts in awareness.

A Take-Home Message

Mindfulness is a personal and practice-based skill. Choice of measurement depends on your question: do you want to track momentary experiences from a single practice, or measure a person’s habitual tendency toward awareness across time? Each validated scale has strengths and boundaries, and self-report measures are most informative when used thoughtfully and, where possible, combined with behavioral or observational data.

If you want to better understand your own mindfulness or monitor a client’s progress, try one tool consistently and record changes over time. Regular practice paired with repeated assessment can reveal meaningful shifts in awareness, acceptance, and responsiveness.

Consider these questions before picking a measure: What do you hope to learn? How soon after a practice will you ask participants to respond? Will you complement self-report with other information? Thoughtful answers will help you choose the best instrument for your purpose.

Thank you for exploring ways to measure mindfulness. We wish you calm, clarity, and useful insights—whether or not you decide to quantify your practice.