Unlocking Cognitive Potential: Investigating the Impact of a Single Short-Term Mindfulness Meditation Session on Working Memory in Medical Students.

A brief 10-minute mindfulness meditation session improved working memory in medical students, as measured by the forward digit span test. In a quasi-experimental study with 55 medical students, scores increased significantly after the meditation. Both male and female students showed improvements, though the increase was greater for males. The findings suggest that even short-term mindfulness practice can enhance working memory, which may benefit academic performance.

Study at a glance

Abstract

With the heavy academic demands for medical students, this research aimed to find the potential benefits of short-term mindfulness meditation in improving working memory among medical students, which may potentially have positive effects on their academics. Several previous studies have also shown the positive effects of mindfulness meditation in improving different cognitive functions, however, most of those studies studied the effects of long-term meditation. This study is unique because it studies the effectiveness of short-term meditation. To see the effects of a short-term mindfulness meditation practice on working memory among medical students at Khyber Medical College, Peshawar. In a quasi-experimental study, 55 medical students provided written consent to participate. The participants' working memory was assessed using the forward digit span test before a brief mindfulness meditation session. Following listening to a 10 min mindfulness audiotape, the forward digit span test was administered again. The pre- and post-meditation test scores were compared using SPSS software for statistical analysis. This study explored the pre- and post-meditation Forward Digit Span test scores. The improvements were extremely significant as per the T-test analysis (p = 0.00). On separate T-tests for each gender, it was found that females (p = 0.013) had a comparatively lesser increase in digit-span test scores than males (p = 0.003). However, both males and females showed improvements of significance. These findings imply the cognitive benefits of meditation practices for both genders. This research indicates that short-term mindfulness meditation improves the working memory of medical students. Evidence was obtained to suggest that mindfulness practice can improve working memory, which may have implications for enhancing the academic performance of medical students.