most people learn social skills through implicit-pattern matching. 'when i do this, that happens' - with no real structural understanding of _why_. they implicitly learn patterns like posture, eye contact, facial microexpressions.
that implicit learning is not possible if you are always engaged in conceptual thought.
While I agree with you, the paper is saying that mindfulness (being "in the moment" or aware of your surroundings) results in reduced implicit learning. That seems to be the opposite of your observation.
Although I have no idea whether "dispositional mindfulness" is different from "mindfulness," so maybe my comment isn't quite accurate. But if it's any way related to the colloquial definition of "mindfulness," then the paper is saying it's negatively correlated with implicit learning.
Is the paper's "implicit learning" the same as the type of learning you're talking about? I don't know.
i've found that my social skills have dramatically improved from trying to learn them _conceptually_, rather than implicitly. I watched a lot of tv shows - walking dead, house of cards, game of thrones, breaking bad - and kept pausing the tv to discuss with my wife _why_ people were acting the ways they did.
doing this really helped me come to understand a lot of things, like the importance of staying calm if you want to be respected. apparently 'dispositional mindfulness' is mindfulness as a default state, as opposed to something practiced intentionally.
going about my day thinking about abstract things constantly seems like the opposite of dispositional mindfulness. i'll haveh to look further.
You may also find this book interesting, by a man who was diagnosed with Asperger's (which is now just said to be on the autistic spectrum) as an adult, after his wife started picking up on it: http://www.amazon.com/The-Journal-Best-Practices-Marriage/dp...
Mindfulness disengages the "default mode network" and instead engages the "experiential focus network" which is more attuned to the 5 senses, and less absorbed in thought.
this is the point i was trying to make above, but failed to understand the article.
Turns out, when somebody has diagnoseable ADHD, then the corresponding treatment options apply. And there's not a thing they can do to solve their problems which is more effective than treating ADHD according to well-proven guidelines.
I can recommend "Pay Attention! ADHD through the lifetime" from Coursera. That MOOC goes into quite some detail about how ADHD affects people.