title: Not sensitive, yet less biased: A signal detection theory perspective on mindfulness, attention, and recognition memory.
abstract: The practice of mindfulness has been argued to increase attention control and improve memory performance. However, it was recently suggested that the effect of mindfulness on memory may be due to a shift in response-bias, rather than to an increase in memory-sensitivity. The present study examined the mindfulness-attention-memory triad. Participants filled in the five-facets of mindfulness questionnaire, and completed two recognition blocks; in the first attention was full, whereas in the second attention was divided during the encoding of information. It was found that the facet of non-judging (NJ) moderated the impact of attention on memory, such that responses of high NJ participants were less biased and remained constant even when attention was divided. Facets of mindfulness were not associated with memory sensitivity. These findings suggest that mindfulness may affect memory through decision making processes, rather than through directing attentional resources to the encoding of information.
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Sciences, Peres Academic Center, Rehovot, Israel. Electronic address: eyal@pac.ac.il.
authors.forename: Eyal
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rosenstreich
authors.affiliation: Section of Comparative Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510, USA.
authors.forename: Lital
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ruderman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D064866:Mindfulness / Q000379:methods*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Divided attention; Mindfulness; Recognition memory; Response bias; Sensitivity