Abstract
Training in mindfulness, classically described as a receptive attentiveness to present events and experiences, has been shown to improve attention and working memory. Both are key to long-term memory formation, and the present three-study series used multiple methods to examine whether mindfulness would enhance episodic memory, a key form of long-term memory. In Study 1 (N = 143), a self-reported state of mindful attention predicted better recognition performance in the Remember-Know (R-K) paradigm. In Study 2 (N = 93), very brief training in a focused attention form of mindfulness also produced better recognition memory performance on the R-K task relative to a randomized, well-matched active control condition. Study 3 (N = 57) extended these findings by showing that relative to randomized active and inactive control conditions the effect of very brief mindfulness training generalized to free-recall memory performance. This study also found evidence for mediation of the mindfulness training—episodic memory relation by intrinsic motivation. These findings indicate that mindful attention can beneficially impact motivation and episodic memory, with potential implications for educational and occupational performance.
Highlights
Mental time travel is a hallmark of human subjectivity, a key feature of which is the capacity to consciously re-experience past events
A preliminary analysis showed no main effects of participant sex (p = .91) or trait attentional control (p = .97), nor any sex or trait attention control interactions with recognition performance
Building upon scholarship on early Buddhist canonical descriptions of mindfulness [16] and prior empirical work showing that mindfulness training improves both attentional and working memory processes [11], we hypothesized that bringing mindful attention to bear on task stimuli would improve episodic memory
Summary
Mental time travel is a hallmark of human subjectivity, a key feature of which is the capacity to consciously re-experience past events. This episodic memory, the remembrance of past episodes from specific times and places, allows humans to guide their present and anticipated future behavior. Mindfulness Enhances Episodic Memory Performance declarative memory (the other form being semantic memory), episodic memory is subject to both neurological insult and age-related decline. There is considerable demand for interventions to preserve and enhance episodic and other forms of memory [2]
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