Brief breath awareness training yields poorer working memory performance in the context of acute stress

Summary

Brief mindfulness meditation (breath awareness) may impair cognitive performance after acute stress compared to other contemplative practices. In a randomized trial with 162 participants, those who practiced loving-kindness, gratitude, or an attentional control improved their working memory scores on the Operation Span task after the cold pressor stress test, while the breath awareness group did not. Changes in working memory were unrelated to changes in mood. The findings suggest that brief breath awareness training may not buffer against acute stress in meditation-naïve individuals and could even hinder cognitive performance relative to other practices.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Mindfulness-based interventions that span multiple sessions over time appear to confer psychological benefits. However, the effects of brief periods of mindfulness meditation training are less clear, particularly on measures of cognitive functioning. This study assessed whether brief mindfulness practice (breath awareness) or training in two other contemplative practices – loving-kindness and gratitude – differentially impact working memory performance following acute physiological stress relative to an attentional control. Participants (n = 162) were randomly assigned to one of four training groups and completed the automated Operation Span (OSPAN) task pre-training and again after undergoing the cold pressor task. Three of the four groups improved in OSPAN performance, with loving-kindness, gratitude, and attentional control conditions showing increases in OSPAN relative to breath awareness. Changes in OSPAN were not correlated with changes in positive or negative affect. It appears that brief breath awareness training may not effectively buffer against acute stress in this predominantly meditation naïve sample and may in fact impair subsequent cognitive performance relative to a control or other contemplative practices. A granular approach is warranted to understand potentially distinct and contextually variable effects of different contemplative practices. Implications are discussed in light of the stress buffering hypothesis and Monitor and Acceptance Theory.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02214264.