title: Dispositional mindfulness is associated with reduced implicit learning.
abstract: Behavioral and neuroimaging evidence suggest that mindfulness exerts its salutary effects by disengaging habitual processes supported by subcortical regions and increasing effortful control processes supported by the frontal lobes. Here we investigated whether individual differences in dispositional mindfulness relate to performance on implicit sequence learning tasks in which optimal learning may in fact be impeded by the engagement of effortful control processes. We report results from two studies where participants completed a widely used questionnaire assessing mindfulness and one of two implicit sequence learning tasks. Learning was quantified using two commonly used measures of sequence learning. In both studies we detected a negative relationship between mindfulness and sequence learning, and the relationship was consistent across both learning measures. Our results, the first to show a negative relationship between mindfulness and implicit sequence learning, suggest that the beneficial effects of mindfulness do not extend to all cognitive functions.
authors: Department of Psychology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA. Electronic address: cms264@georgetown.edu.
authors: Chelsea M
authors: CM
authors: Stillman
authors: Department of Psychology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA.
authors: Halley
authors: H
authors: Feldman
authors: Department of Psychology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA.
authors: Caroline G
authors: CG
authors: Wambach
authors: Center for Brain Plasticity and Recovery, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA; Department of Psychology, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC 20064, USA; Department of Neurology, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20057, USA.
authors: James H
authors: JH
authors: Howard
authors: Department of Psychology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA; Center for Brain Plasticity and Recovery, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA.
authors: Darlene V
authors: DV
authors: Howard
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D064866:Mindfulness; D011930:Reaction Time; D012691:Serial Learning; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Implicit learning; Mindfulness; Serial response time task