EMDR and mindfulness. Eye movements and attentional breathing tax working memory and reduce vividness and emotionality of aversive ideation.
Marcel A Van den Hout, Iris M Engelhard, Daniel Beetsma, Christien Slofstra, Hellen Hornsveld, Jan Houtveen, Arne Leer
Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry December 2011 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2011.03.004 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study (two experiments) Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Healthy volunteers |
| Interventions | Eye movements Attentional breathing |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | Attentional breathing and eye movements taxed working memory to the same degree in both studies. Both interventions reduced emotionality of memory in study 1 but not study 2, and reduced vividness in study 2 but not study 1. The authors propose that EMDR and MBCT may partly derive their effects from taxing working memory during recall. |
Abstract
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) are effective in reducing the subjective impact of negative ideation. In both treatments, patients are encouraged to engage in a dual-task (eye movements (EM) in the case of EMDR and attentional breathing (AB) in the case of MBCT) while they experience negative thoughts or images. Working memory theory explains the effects of EM by suggesting that it taxes limited working memory resources, thus rendering the image less vivid and emotional. It was hypothesized that both AB and EM tax working memory and that both reduce vividness and emotionality of negative memories. Working memory taxation by EM and AB was assessed in healthy volunteers by slowing down of reaction times. In a later session, participants retrieved negative memories during recall only, recall + EM and recall + AB (study 1). Under improved conditions the study was replicated (study 2). In both studies and to the same degree, attentional breathing and eye movements taxed working memory. Both interventions reduced emotionality of memory in study 1 but not in study 2 and reduced vividness in study 2 but not in study 1. EMDR is more than EM and MBCT is more than AB. Memory effects were assessed by self reports. EMDR and MBCT may (partly) derive their beneficial effects from taxing working memory during recall of negative ideation.
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
Cited by 3
- Autobiographical Memory and Mindfulness: a Critical Review with a Systematic Search Mindfulness May 23, 2022
- Exploring MDMA assisted therapy in eating disorders: mechanisms, clinical evidence, and future directions. Journal of Eating Disorders December 29, 2025
- EMDR Therapy, Mindfulness, and Posttraumatic Growth The Oxford Handbook of EMDR Therapy June 20, 2024
Cites 5
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