Mindfulness Practice Helps Reduce COVID-19 Stress Impact on Working Memory

A recent study highlights the beneficial role of mindfulness in alleviating the detrimental effects of COVID-19-related stress on working memory (WM). Working memory is crucial for processing information, multitasking, maintaining attention, and managing daily cognitive functions. However, traumatic stress experienced during the pandemic has been shown to impair these cognitive abilities, especially in structured environments such as testing scenarios.

The research, conducted by doctoral student Hunggu Cho along with co-directors Ken Rice and Jeff Ashby from the Ken Matheny Center for Stress, Trauma, and Resilience, was published in the Journal of Loss and Trauma. It involved 484 college students from the United States and Israel, who completed a 40-minute survey measuring COVID-19 stress levels, mindfulness, and self-reported working memory. Additionally, participants performed a Symmetry Span Task, a timed test assessing WM by recalling the positions of red squares on a grid.

Findings revealed that stress related to COVID-19 negatively influenced task-based WM, indicating that high stress levels impair performance in controlled testing environments. Interestingly, self-reported WM in daily life was not significantly affected by stress. This suggests that COVID-19 stress may impact cognitive functioning differently depending on the context.

Crucially, the study demonstrated that mindfulness had a small yet significant moderating effect on the relationship between COVID-19 stress and WM, particularly regarding self-reported abilities. Participants with higher mindfulness levels tended to report better WM functioning despite experiencing stress. Although the measurement of mindfulness warrants further research, these results support the idea that cultivating mindfulness can help improve cognitive resilience during stressful times.

The researchers proposed that enhancing mindfulness could potentially strengthen working memory capabilities or that both may share underlying attentional components. Future studies are encouraged to explore these possibilities further.

This research underscores the potential of mindfulness as a practical tool for maintaining cognitive health amidst ongoing pandemic-related challenges.

Source: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-04-mindfulness-mitigate-covid-stress-impact.html