The effects of mindfulness on executive processes and autobiographical memory specificity
Section snippets
Participants
The study was a quasi-experimental mixed design with a between-subjects variable (Mindfulness group vs. Matched group) and a within-subject variable (Pre-test vs. Post-test). For the Mindfulness group, the study was advertised during information sessions for individuals interested in an 8 session mindfulness program and presented as an investigation of the impact of mindfulness training on different cognitive functions. Twenty-six people who responded to this advertisement were informed of the
Group equivalence
Preliminary analyses indicated no difference between Mindfulness group and Matched group at Pre-test on STAI-trait, t(34) = .49, p = .630, BDI-II, t(34) = .95, p = .354, and SCL-90-R (Global Score Index), t(34) = 1.03, p = .312. Further analyses ascertained that there were no group differences for the sub-scales of the SCL-90-R. Both groups can thus be considered as equivalent. Groups' characteristics are displayed in Table 1.
General statistical analyses
The main analyses consisted of a 2 × 2 mixed-design ANOVAs with Group (Mindfulness
Discussion
The aim of this study was to examine the role of executive processes on the impact of mindfulness on autobiographical memory specificity. In general, our hypotheses were confirmed. First, the study replicates Williams et al. (2000) observation and extends them to a non-depressed sample. Our data reveal that mindfulness training increases specific and decreases general (i.e., extended and categorical) autobiographical memories retrieval. Second, this study also finds that mindfulness training
Acknowledgements
Data collection has been made possible by the UCL Psychology Department Consulting Center (CPS) and the help of François Nef, Claude Maskens, Sandrine Deplus, and Fabienne Bauwens. We thank Nathalie Vrielynck and Damien Brevers for their help in the inter-rater agreement.
The authors also appreciate helpful comments of Sanah Sheikh, Ronald M. Rapee and two anonymous reviewers on earlier drafts of this paper.
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