Dispositional mindfulness and anxiety: how do they relate to aging and word retrieval?

Abstract

Separate domains of research have previously shown that word retrieval performance is reduced with increased anxiety, and that increased mindfulness is associated with reduced anxiety. Adult aging has been shown to affect word retrieval, mindfulness, and anxiety, but the inter-relationships among these variables have not been previously tested. The present research examined whether individual differences in dispositional mindfulness and anxiety relate to word retrieval performance across adulthood. Participants (N = 207) ages 20–78 completed an online definition-naming task along with several self-report measures related to mindfulness and anxiety. Increased age was positively related to increased production of correct responses and to increased dispositional mindfulness, and negatively related to state anxiety, trait anxiety, and anxiety specifically related to communication. For the entire sample, measures related to mindfulness and anxiety were intercorrelated in the expected ways. We divided participants into groups of young, middle-aged, and older adults, and found that anxiety and mindfulness scores were only associated with correct word retrieval in older adults; there were no relationships in young or middle-aged participants. The primary conclusion is that dispositional mindfulness can attenuate the negative effects of state anxiety on word retrieval performance, but only for older adults. Study results contribute important empirical, theoretical, and practical information regarding mindfulness, anxiety, word retrieval, and aging.