A Dual-Process Perspective on Mindfulness, Memory, and Consciousness

Mindfulness has recently been associated with “fringe consciousness”: an increased sensitivity to metacognitive feeling evoked from the processing of information. In three studies, we examined this notion from the scope of recognition memory. In study 1, the effect of fluency of processing on recognition memory was examined among mindfulness and control groups. Results revealed that control participants showed the typical fluency effect, in which fluency increased both hits and false alarms. However, in the mindfulness group, fluency solely increased hits. In study 2, a recognition test was conducted for positive, negative, and neutral valence words among mindfulness and mind-wandering groups. Here, estimations of recollection—a contextual retrieval process—and familiarity—a feeling of memory-based retrieval process, were assessed using the remember/know procedure. Results revealed that whereas group and valence did not interact for recollection, they did for familiarity. Critically, compared to mind-wandering controls, mindfulness increased familiarity-based retrieval of neutral words. Finally, study 3 examined whether and how facets of mindfulness are associated with recollection and familiarity. Regression analyses revealed that the facet of observing positively predicted rates of familiarity. Altogether, these findings support the notion of mindfulness as a promoter of increased sensitivity to feeling of memory at the fringe of consciousness.