Concentration just blocks thinking. When you allow thoughts in you'll see what your conditioning is. With noting you'll have to be more consistent to get much out of it. When there's awareness of experiences there's no clinging but if you let go of that awareness then the old conditioning can arise and affect your actions quite easily.
When the practice is done right there should be withdrawal symptoms because we are addicted to the neurotransmitters released based on our thinking. The main thing to notice is if there's greed, hatred or delusion present. When they aren't there then that's some success right there. Build off of that. It's important to learn about dependent origination and to see it in your practice.
http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/210/talk/9553/