The effects of a mindfulness meditation training intervention on emotional stroop performance and emotion regulation

Mindfulness is a metacognitive skill that is suggested to have salutary effects on attentional control and emotion regulation. To examine this, the current study assessed the effects of one week of neurofeedback-based mindfulness training on emotion regulation and emotional interference. Twenty-two females and 11 males aged 20-24 years were recruited and randomly allocated to a mindfulness or relaxation control condition. Participants completed questionnaire measures of wellbeing and emotion regulation and an emotional Stroop task (ES task) to assess emotional interference. On the ES task, participants responded faster to congruent relative to neutral (p=.003) and negative words (p<.001), although there was no difference between negative and neutral words (p=.327), indicating the absence of an emotional Stroop effect. The hypothesised reduction in emotional interference and improved emotion regulation for the mindfulness condition was not supported. Predicted improvements in measures of wellbeing were also not found. Limitations, implications, and recommendations for future research are discussed.