{"id":6877302,"date":"2026-09-16T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/?p=6877302"},"modified":"2026-09-15T12:36:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T17:36:23","slug":"can-mindfulness-enhance-working-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/can-mindfulness-enhance-working-memory\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Mindfulness Enhance Working Memory?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Longtime readers know that I’m obsessed with working memory<\/strong> — typically abbreviated as WM. This cognitive capacity allows people to hold information in mind, mentally move it around, and combine ideas and procedures together. Of course, learning<\/strong> requires students to execute all those mental operations. Simply put: successful school learning requires successful working memory function<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the catch: humans just don’t have very much working memory. The bottleneck on this vital cognitive capacity creates strict limits on the learning that students — and all of us — can do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this reason, anyone in favor of learning would LOVE to find ways to increase working memory capacity. Despite the obvious appeal of this idea, we just haven’t found ways to accomplish that goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance: practice<\/em> usually increases our cognitive capacities. If I want to get better at speaking Spanish, solving calculus problems, or programming in Java, I can develop those abilities by chatting with my friends in Spanish, seeking out calculus problems to solve, and writing Java programs. Sadly, this strategy just doesn’t work with working memory. No matter how much WM practice we do, students don\u2019t see benefits of that training in their academic work. (Trust me: researchers have tried!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attuned to my interest in working memory, a friend recently pointed out an intriguing possibility…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Memory Meets Mindfulness<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I typically define working memory with four verbs: a cognitive capacity that selects, holds, reorganizes,<\/strong> and combines<\/strong> ideas from multiple sources. Note: before WM does the “reorganizing and combining” necessary for learning, it must first “select and hold” the relevant facts, concepts, and procedures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we can’t get better at reorganizing and combining, can we get better at selecting and holding<\/em>? Specifically, can mindful meditation<\/strong> help us hone those mental skills? After all, mindfulness typically invites meditators to focus<\/em> on a particular stimulus — say, the breath — and to maintain<\/em> that object of focus. “Focus and maintain” sounds a lot like “select and hold.” In theory, mindfulness training could very well increase WM capacity if it helps us get better at those first two verbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My friend pointed me to this review article<\/a> by Dr. Amishi Jha and colleagues. In it, Team Jha summarizes several studies showing that — sure enough — mindful meditation can preserve WM function in high-stress situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given both my focus on WM and the potential benefits of mindfulness, I’m an obvious candidate to be all in on Team Mindfulness. A mindfulness practice costs nothing, and \u2013 if it increases WM capacity \u2013 could very well help students learn almost anything. Perhaps \u2013 at last! \u2013 we\u2019ve found the solution to this vexing cognitive problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having looked over this article (and several others), I want to explain why I’m not yet convinced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first place: a quick review of the research summarized by Jha raises important concerns:<\/p>\n\n\n\n