Mindfulness and Mind-Wandering in Older Adults: Implications for Behavioral Performance
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Date
2015-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
Mind-wandering is defined as an attentional shift from the task at hand to internally generated thoughts. Although common, mind-wandering is associated with decreased performance on tasks requiring sustained attention and executive control. In juxtaposition to mind-wandering, mindfulness is characterized by attending nonjudgmentally to the present moment. Recent studies of both mindfulness disposition and mindfulness training provide evidence for associations between higher levels of mindfulness, decreased mind-wandering and improved cognitive performance. Interestingly, researchers have found that our tendency to mind wander decreases with age where as mindfulness disposition increases with age. The goal of the current study was to further examine the association between mindfulness and mind-wandering in an ageing population. Seventy-four older adults (ages 60-74) completed measures of dispositional mindfulness and mind-wandering as well as two computerized tasks: the Go/No-Go task and the word version of the Continuous Performance Task (CPT-WORD). Extending previous findings to an older adult sample, dispositional mindfulness was negatively associated with mind-wandering on both tasks. Surprisingly, mind-wandering was not significantly associated with behavioral performance on either of the tasks. Contrary to our hypotheses, dispositional mindfulness was not significantly associated with accuracy on the Go/No-Go task. Interestingly, mindfulness was positively associated with reactive, but not proactive, control on the CPT-WORD. Our results suggest that the relationship between mindfulness and mind-wandering exists in an older adult sample; however, the relationship between these two constructs and indices of cognitive control is mixed across varying tasks.
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Keywords
Mindfulness, Mind-wandering, Cognitive Control, Older Adults