Mindfulness and Memory: a Review of Findings and a Potential Model

The Relationship Between Mindfulness, Cognitive Intrusions, and Recollection: An ERP Study

“…Second, we found a marginal but expected effect suggesting that state mindfulness, that is, acting with open awareness, predicts better performance in the recognition task. This result partly confirms the predictions from the model by Levi and Rosenstreich (2018). Moreover, mindfulness-related improvement was not associated with the higher effort due to compensatory processes.…”

“…It seems reasonable to expect that factors enhancing the availability of attentional resources and WMC will also improve retrieving information from episodic memory. The natural candidate for such a variable is mindfulness (Jankowski & Holas, 2014;Levi & Rosenstreich, 2018), that is, a state of mind that "emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgementally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment" (Kabat-Zinn, 2003, p.145). Although mindfulness is often associated with meditation practice, it can be also conceptualized as receptive and open attention and awareness directed toward ongoing events; as such, it is a natural and spontaneous state of mind that fluctuates in time and can be experienced with no meditational practice (Brown & Ryan, 2003).…”

“…Moreover, several studies showed an adverse effect of mindfulness on memory, suggesting that mindfulness increases false memories and incorrect memory recall (e.g., Wilson, Mickes, Stolarz-Fantino, Evrard, & Fantino, 2015). Levi and Rosenstreich (2018) have made a comprehensive review of findings and tried to explain the inconsistency in results on the relationship between mindfulness and episodic memory. They proposed a working model connecting three facets of mindfulness with different systems of memory.…”

Increases in Theta Oscillatory Activity During Episodic Memory Retrieval Following Mindfulness Meditation Training

“…Again, these effects are often small and it is not clear how they compare to other interventions (Eberth and Sedlmeier, 2012; Sedlmeier et al, 2012; Goyal et al, 2014; MacCoon et al, 2014). Although many studies have shown effects of mindfulness meditation on attention and executive function which should contribute to better episodic memory, less is known about the effects of mindfulness meditation on episodic memory (reviewed in Levi and Rosenstreich, 2018). Recent research has begun to look at the behavioral effects of mindfulness meditation on episodic memory.…”

“…Therefore, previous studies have shown that mindfulness meditation increases episodic memory (reviewed in Lykins and Baer, 2012; Brown et al, 2016; Levi and Rosenstreich, 2018; Basso et al, 2019) and theta oscillations (reviewed in Delmonte, 1984; Lou et al, 1999; Kubota et al, 2001; Aftanas and Golosheikin, 2003; reviewed in Cahn and Polich, 2006; Tang et al, 2009; reviewed in Fell et al, 2010; reviewed in Lomas et al, 2015; Brandmeyer and Delorme, 2018; reviewed in Lee et al, 2018). But no study has trained participants in mindfulness meditation and measured theta oscillatory effects during episodic memory.…”