The protective effects of brief mindfulness meditation training

A More Rigorous Examination of the Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Working Memory Capacity

“…On day 10 prior to each working memory capacity posttest, mindfulness training participants listened to a brief guided meditation. This is consistent with prior research (Banks et al 2015;Semple 2010;Zeidan et al 2010), and was done to induce a mindful state and cue the attention control practices learned during mindfulness training (much like an experienced meditator would do autonomously and spontaneously). Upon entering the lab on day 10, participants listened to a 4 min 30 s guided meditation, then completed their first working memory capacity posttest.…”

“…The current study investigated if mindfulness meditation could enhance the capacity of the working memory system using recommended rigorous criteria for reaching such a conclusion: using multiple, valid indicators of working memory capacity different from the tasks participants trained on, and demonstrating improvement relative to an active, adaptive control group. This extends previous reports of working memory capacity improvement following mindfulness meditation training by using stringent design criteria that previous studies had not fully incorporated (Banks et al 2015;Jha et al 2010Jha et al , 2017Mrazek et al 2013;Quach et al 2016;Van Dam et al 2017;Zeidan et al 2010). It was hypothesized that the mindfulness meditation group would significantly improve working memory capacity from pretest to posttest, whereas the cognitive training group would not demonstrate such improvement.…”

“…It is currently an open empirical question as to what specific benefits-if any-are observed after a specific duration of a specific style of mindfulness meditation training using a well-controlled study design (Van Dam et al 2017). Studies with only one session of mindfulness training have shown no cognitive benefits (Banks et al 2015;Johnson et al 2015) whereas studies with longer duration mindfulness training (e.g., 2 to 8 weeks) have shown more robust cognitive benefits (Jha et al 2010(Jha et al , 2017Mrazek et al 2013). As the current study is the first to test the benefits of focused attention mindfulness meditation training on working memory capacity using recommended rigorous criteria (Shipstead et al 2012a, b), observation of any benefit following mindfulness training in the current study can inform future research.…”

“…Mindfulness meditation has also been shown to buffer and protect working memory capacity and working memory performance from decrements due to stress (Jha et al 2010(Jha et al , 2017 and negative affect (Banks et al 2015). While promising, these studies all lacked one or more of the following design criteria: random assignment; comparison to active, adaptive controls; or using multiple, valid measures of working memory capacity.…”

“…The previously mentioned mindfulness meditation studies that demonstrated working memory capacity improvement have included some or most of these criteria in their study design, but not all. That is, mindfulness meditation is a technique different from tested outcome measures (criteria 3) that has been shown to improve performance on valid (criteria 2), individual measures of working memory capacity and working memory functioning when compared to an active control group (part of criteria 4) (Banks et al 2015;Jha et al 2010;Mrazek et al 2013;Quach et al 2016;Zeidan et al 2010). The main goal of the current study was to more rigorously investigate the efficacy of mindfulness meditation by using, as part of the study design, all of the aforementioned criteria recommended by the reviews of the computerized working memory training literature.…”