Does A Brief Mindfulness Intervention Impact Quiz Performance?

Abstract

Mindfulness practices improve cognition, emotional balance, and well-being in clinical and non-clinical populations. The bulk of mindfulness research in higher education has focused on improving psychological and cognitive variables, leaving academic performance largely unexplored. We investigated the effects of a brief mindfulness intervention on quiz performance in two sections of an undergraduate upper-level human development class (N ¼ 67). We used a between-group experimental design (waiting control group) and compared student quiz scores. Students assigned to practice mindfulness performed better on the first two quizzes than the control group. When the control group received the mindfulness intervention, there was no significant difference on quiz performance between the two groups. Mindfulness training did not impact state mindfulness or exam scores. Taken together, our results suggest that small doses of mindfulness training can briefly enhance students' knowledge retention of lecture content.

Mindfulness Training for Improving Attention Regulation in University Students: Is It Effective? and Do Yoga and Homework Matter?

“…Several experimental studies assigned a group of students 1 to either 5-20-minute breathing meditation or an active or passive control condition prior to a regular university/college course and assessed retention of course content via quiz performance at the end of the session. With the exception of Baranski and Was (2019), all studies observed superior quiz performance in the mindfulness meditation group (Ramsburg and Youmans, 2014;Calma-Birling and Gurung, 2017;Bennett et al, 2018;Lin and Mai, 2018), indicating that brief mindfulness inductions can boost short-term academic performance. Some of these studies (Calma-Birling and Gurung, 2017; Lin and Mai, 2018; Baranski and Was, 2019) provided such mindfulness inductions at the beginning of each course session over several weeks and explored whether this would lead to superior long-term academic success, indexed by performance in exams that tested the content of multiple course sessions.…”

Stress in Post-Secondary: Toward an Understanding of Test-Anxiety, Cognitive Performance, and Brief Mindfulness Meditation

“…A lack of difference between groups on cognitive performance may be explained by recent evidence suggesting that brief MM may only result in immediate, short-term cognitive benefits (Calma-Birling & Gurung, 2017).…”

“…Examining the effects of brief MM on test performance in an undergraduate sample, a sevenweek study found that five-minute inductions of MM boosted quiz grades and short-term knowledge retention, but failed to impact longterm test scores (Calma-Birling & Gurung, 2017). As such, smaller doses of MM may only give rise to immediate, short-term cognitive performance effects (Calma-Birling & Gurung, 2017).…”

“…Research examining the effectiveness of brief MM on state test-anxiety is sparse, however available evidence indicates that mindfulnessbased interventions may reduce test-anxiety and improve cognitive performance by cultivating emotional regulatory skills, enhancing working memory and inhibiting task-irrelevant thoughts (Calma-Birling & Gurung, 2017;Mrazek et al, 2013).…”

Virtual mindfulness interventions to promote well-being in young adults: A mixed-methods systematic review

“…Through cognitive reappraisal interventions, there was a focus on normalizing emotions in a college classroom setting [17]. Mindful ways of approaching emotional experiences were introduced, rather than techniques for reappraisal [14]. PPIs were used for students taking a positive psychology course [31].…”