Effectiveness of Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on Working memory and Problem-solving in sub-clinical anxiety sample

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 M.S of Cognitive Psychology, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran

2 Assistant Professor of Psychology, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran

3 Assistant Professor, of Statistics, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran

Abstract

Introduction: Anxiety is known as a common problem in the general population. The‌ aim of this study was to investigate the effect of Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on working memory and problem solving along with reducing anxiety.
Methods: The research design was semi-experimental with pre-test-post-test and experimental and control group. The study population included all students between 20 and 30 years old in Tehran, from which 26 people were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria and randomly assigned them to experimental and control groups. Subjects in each group were tested before and after the intervention (8 sessions of MBCT) and in the follow-up phase (3 months) with the tools of the Tower of London (computer -based), forward-backward digit span and letter number sequencing test, Beck's anxiety questionnaire.
Results: results of MANCOVA showed that the experimental group was significantly different from the control group in the post-test and follow-up stages in working memory and anxiety. There was a significant difference between the two groups in the case of the problem solving in the indicators of trial time, total time, number of errors and the number of correct trials, but in the case of the planning time the difference was not significant.
Conclusion: according to the findings of this study, MBCT training through anxiety reduction can improve working memory capacity and problem solving components except the planning time.

Keywords

References

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History

  • Receive Date: 22 April 2020
  • Revise Date: 11 January 2021
  • Accept Date: 25 January 2021

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