Effect of postlearning meditation on memory consolidation: level of focused attention matters.
Megan B Collins, Erin J. Wamsley
Learning & Memory May 15, 2020 preprint DOI: 10.1101/lm.051151.119 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study |
|---|---|
| Interventions | Focused attention to breath Quiet rest |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Humans Emotions Mental recall Verbal learning Thinking Attention Rest Female Young adult Memory consolidation |
| Key findings | Breath-focus during an eyes-closed consolidation period did not impair verbal memory overall compared with quiet rest, but participants who reported greater success maintaining breath-focus showed increased forgetting. The authors argue this pattern is incompatible with a simple sensory-interference account of rest's benefit to memory. |
Abstract
Recent studies demonstrate that eyes-closed rest benefits memory consolidation, perhaps due to reduced attention to environmental stimuli. Here, we asked whether focusing attention to internal thoughts and feelings after learning similarly blocks memory consolidation. Verbal memory was tested following an eyes-closed consolidation period filled with either focused attention to breath or quiet rest. Although breath-focus did not impair memory relative to quiet rest overall, participants who reported being more successful in maintaining breath-focus during this condition showed increased forgetting. We interpret these findings as incompatible with a simple sensory-interference-based account of rest's effect on memory.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Cancer patients (clinical intervention study) | 2003 | Mixed methods: scale development, correlational, quasi-experimental, laboratory, experience-sampling, and clinical intervention study | |
| Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. | 2008 | Controlled laboratory experiment | |
| Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. | 2012 | Two studies: correlational study and experimental study | |
| Mental Training Enhances Attentional Stability: Neural and Behavioral Evidence | 2009 | Experimental study | |
| Mindfulness meditation and substance use in an incarcerated population. Incarcerated population | 2006 | Quasi-experimental with treatment-as-usual control condition |
Citations in the library
Cites 6
- Internal and external attention and the default mode network Neuroimage January 18, 2017
- Dissociating meditation proficiency and experience dependent EEG changes during traditional Vipassana meditation practice. Biological Psychology May 1, 2018
- Disentangling the neural mechanisms involved in Hinduism- and Buddhism-related meditations. Brain and Cognition October 2014
- A neurocognitive model of meditation based on activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis. Consciousness and Cognition March 2012
- Mind wandering and attention during focused meditation: a fine-grained temporal analysis of fluctuating cognitive states. Neuroimage January 2, 2012
and 1 more in the library