Effects of a brief online mindfulness intervention on cognition and affect in university students: A randomized longitudinal design

Dispositional mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been extensively linked with improved cognition, affect, and wellbeing. Variability in nature and method of MBIs and mindfulness practice necessitate a consistent standard for research and applied purposes. Moreover, traditional MBIs are lengthy and resource intensive. Brief and online MBIs are effective, representing a bridge into more extensive practice – but questions of mindfulness-specific effects and methodological variety linger. The present experiment used a randomized longitudinal design to assess effects of a 31-day, 15-minute daily mindfulness program on a battery of cognitive, affective, and individual difference measures in a sample of university students. Results indicated that, over the course of the study, the MBI group found their intervention less challenging, more enjoyable, more relaxing, and more useful compared to the podcast control group. MBI subjects also increased in state and trait mindfulness following the intervention relative to the podcast group. However, both groups showed comparable improvements in cognition and affect. Taken together, the results support prior work suggesting benefits from brief online mindfulness training – however, they also suggest more work is needed to make strong claims about mindfulness-specific far-transfer effects.