Evaluating the effects of brief mindfulness practice on attentional control and episodic memory

ABSTRACT

Mindfulness refers to a mental state of present awareness that involves non-judgmental acceptance of current cognitions and emotions. Building on reported clinical benefits (e.g. reduced anxiety/depression), minfulness engagement may similarly facilitate attention and memory processes as practitioners repetitively inhibit distracting thoughts and direct attention to the present moment. Experiment 1 gauged the relationships between trait mindfulness and practice frequency and performance on attention and episodic memory tasks. Experiment 2 evaluated attention and memory performance following a brief mindfulness intervention consisting of two 5-minute mindfulness sessions. No consistent relationships were found between trait mindfulness and practice frequency and attention and memory performance in Experiment 1. Further, brief engagements in mindfulness failed to benefit attention and memory versus a control group in Experiment 2. Engagement in brief mindfulness sessions do not appear to produce short-term improvements in attention and memory, suggesting that cognitive benefits following mindfulness may only emerge following long-term practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Mindfulness
• meditation
• attentional control
• episodic memory
• working memory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

This study followed the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the IRB of the University of Southern Mississippi (Protocol Number: IRB-20-380). Participants of the study were provided informed consent at the beginning of each experiment, were informed that participation was voluntary, and informed all answers provided would be stored anonymously.

Data availability statement

Subject level means across experiments can be accessed on Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/9nft2/?view_only = 7ac659756ae4495e981963c6bcefe2a9). Additional data collected for this study are available from the corresponding author ([email protected]) upon request.

Author contributions

This study was completed to satisfy the Master’s thesis requirements for Jacob Namias. Both authors conceived the research idea. Both authors constructed the procedural framework. Jacob Namias computed the statistical findings. Mark Huff verified the analytical methods. Mark Huff supervised the findings of this work. Both authors discussed the data patterns and contributed to the final manuscript.

Notes

1 Testing location (online vs. in-person) occurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Location was tested as a covariate in all results reported and was not found to be a reliable covariate. All analyses collapse across testing location.