Effects of Mindfulness Training on Memories of Personal Past Events

The purpose of the study was to assess the effects of participation in an online Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program on everyday memories of personal past events in individuals with depression vulnerability. Previous research has demonstrated that individuals with depression experience various difficulties when thinking about personal past events, such as more intense negative emotions, difficulties in regulating their emotions, and difficulties in recalling highly contextualized and detailed events. Some of these difficulties may continue following recovery from depression and as such may constitute a vulnerability for recurring depression. Other studies have found that mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) may influence how people experience and regulate their emotions, and certain aspects of how people remember personal past events. Therefore, it is possible that MBIs may also influence how individuals with depression vulnerability emotionally process memories of personal past events. In the present study participants with a history of depression were allocated to either an 8-week online MBSR condition where participants were introduced to and engaged in different mindfulness practices, or a waitlist-control condition, where participants did not receive any active training or treatment. In order to assess the effects of the MBSR program on everyday memories of personal past events participants were asked to complete a memory diary in which participants recorded both spontaneously arising and word-cued memories of personal past events in everyday life, before and after participating in the MBSR program or the waitlist-control condition. The investigators hypothesized that participants in the MBSR condition would report reduced difficulties related to memories of personal past events compared to the waitlist-control group, including how participants emotionally process these memories. The investigators predicted that these effects would be greater for spontaneously occurring memories than for voluntary memories, since previous research comparing individuals with different levels of mindfulness skills suggests that mindfulness may be especially beneficial for influencing emotion regulation in response to memories that come to mind spontaneously.