Mindfulness and Enhanced Executive Control: From Training to Trait

Zusammenfassung

From mastering a new skill, to planning our finances, to navigating the complex and dynamic world of interpersonal relationships, we oftentimes face situations in which relying on reactive or automatic behavior would lead us astray. Such situations, instead, require us to apply top-down, voluntary control of our attention and actions. This critical cognitive ability, which comprises the functions of inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility, is commonly referred to as executive control. Mindfulness, in turn, is the name given to a family of mental training regimes intended to foster the regulation of attentional and emotional processes (mindfulness training), as well as to the psychological faculty that these practices develop (mindfulness trait). Could the cultivation of mindfulness help us strengthen our executive control? This dissertation was proposed with the aim to shed light onto whether or not, to what extent, and by which mechanisms the construct of mindfulness (training and trait) is linked to enhanced executive control. Three studies along with a broad review and conceptual analysis of the state of the evidence in the field were conducted to address this overarching question. These include (a) a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials testing the effectiveness of mindfulness training in enhancing executive control; (b) a highly-powered individual differences investigation examining the attentional and executive control basis of mindfulness trait using a novel ANTI-Vea task; and, (c) a multi-sample study investigating the interrelationships between self-reported trait mindfulness, external distraction (i.e., executive control of attention), and internal distraction (i.e., mind-wandering). Finally, the main results from these studies are discussed in the light of (d) an extensive meta-review and theoretical analysis of the state of the art of the target literature, which culminates in the proposal of a novel mechanistic account of the relationship between mindfulness and executive control. The empirical and theoretical analysis conducted throughout this dissertation indicates that, based on available evidence, it can be asserted with moderate confidence that mindfulness is linked to enhanced executive control performance. This effect would be circumscribed to the domains of inhibitory control and working memory, while no relationship was revealed for cognitive flexibility. In terms of magnitude, the effect is expected to be rather small under most circumstances. In addition, available evidence suggests that mindfulness brings about this salutary cognitive effect not by enhancing executive control capacity in itself, but by enabling a more efficient use of it, possibly by causal routes that include downregulation of both affective reactivity and unintended mindwandering as core mechanisms. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of potentially fruitful avenues for future meta-analytical and empirical research at the intersection of mindfulness, mind-wandering, and executive control.