Background Information

Despite extensive research on mindfulness meditation, specific cognitive benefits remain an area of ongoing research. In this study, the authors aim to address this gap through a comprehensive meta-analysis, offering insights into how mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) specifically enhance cognitive performance, and to avoid burying the lede:

“MBIs consistently yielded small-to-moderate yet practically meaningful effect sizes on global cognition and six cognitive subdomains.”

Cognitive functioning is typically assessed through a variety of standardized tests designed to measure specific domains of mental performance. In this meta-analysis, the authors examined multiple types of cognitive assessments to evaluate mindfulness’s effects. These included behavioral cognitive tasks, which measure response accuracy and reaction time, and self-reported subjective cognitive assessments, where individuals evaluate their own cognitive abilities. Some of the key cognitive functions measured in these studies include:

• Executive Attention: The ability to focus on relevant information while ignoring distractions.
• Working Memory: The capacity to hold and manipulate information over short periods.
• Cognitive Flexibility (Shifting): The ability to switch between tasks or mental frameworks.
• Inhibition Control: The skill of suppressing automatic or habitual responses.
• Processing Speed: How quickly one can perceive, process, and respond to information.
• Verbal Fluency: The ability to retrieve and produce words efficiently.

By systematically analyzing the results across these domains, the study aimed to determine which aspects of cognition benefit the most from mindfulness training.

What They Did

The authors systematically reviewed 111 Randomized Controlled Trials A Randomized Controlled Trial is a scientific study design that randomly assigns participants to either an experimental group receiving an intervention or a control group, allowing researchers to measure the true effect of the intervention while minimizing bias.

More on Wikipedia (RCT), encompassing over 9,500 participants, to analyze the effects of mindfulness training across 15 cognitive subdomains. These subdomains included executive attention, working memory, inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and subjective cognitive functioning. The researchers carefully examined the influence of moderators such as treatment duration, instructor presence, and participant characteristics.

To ensure the rigor of their analysis, the authors used several criteria for evaluating study quality, including:

• Randomization of Participants: Ensuring that individuals were assigned to mindfulness or control groups randomly to reduce bias.
• Treatment Fidelity Checks: Evaluating whether studies reported adherence to mindfulness training protocols.
• Study Design and Control Groups: Comparing MBIs to both waitlist/no-treatment controls and active control groups (such as cognitive training or psychoeducation).
• Use of Objective vs. Subjective Measures: Determining whether cognitive improvements were observed across different types of assessments.
• Handling of Missing Data: Studies were assessed for how they accounted for missing participant data, which can impact the reliability of findings.

One Big Result

The most striking finding was that MBIs effectively enhanced multiple cognitive functions, particularly those related to accuracy rather than speed. This is demonstrated in the following graph, which shows the aggregatged results from all 111 studies.

Overall, to summarize:

“Mindfulness practices promote present-moment awareness and effective goal attainment over efficiency.”

These improvements were particularly significant in executive attention, working memory accuracy, inhibition accuracy, cognitive flexibility, sustained attention, and subjective cognitive functioning. Notably, mindfulness interventions did not significantly improve processing speed or verbal fluency, reinforcing the idea that mindfulness enhances deliberate and controlled cognitive processes rather than rapid response times.

Mindfulness was found to primarily enhance cognitive accuracy rather than speed, suggesting benefits for deliberate, careful cognitive processing. This has significant implications for activities requiring sustained attention and precision, such as learning, problem-solving, and professional decision-making. Instead of rushing through tasks, mindfulness may help individuals engage more deeply and accurately with the material at hand.

“Results suggest that MBIs primarily impacted cognitive processing effectiveness (captured by accuracy) more than efficiency (measured by latency).”

Miscellaneous Interesting Takeaways

Short Mindfulness Practices Are Beneficial

One of the more surprising findings was that the length of mindfulness training was not a strong predictor of cognitive benefits. This means that even short mindfulness sessions, when practiced consistently, can be effective. This is particularly relevant for those who struggle to incorporate long meditation sessions into their routine. A few minutes of structured mindfulness practice each day may be enough to yield noticeable cognitive improvements over time.

Instructor-Led Programs Have Advantages

While self-guided mindfulness apps and online courses offer accessibility, the study found that face-to-face mindfulness programs produced stronger cognitive benefits. Having an instructor present may enhance engagement, provide accountability, and offer real-time feedback, all of which can deepen the learning experience. This suggests that individuals looking for maximum cognitive benefits from mindfulness should consider instructor-led programs whenever possible.

Citation

Zainal, N. H., & Newman, M. G. (2023). Mindfulness enhances cognitive functioning: a meta-analysis of 111 randomized controlled trials. In Health Psychology Review (Vol. 18, Issue 2, pp. 369–395). Informa UK Limited. 10.1080/17437199.2023.2248222