Brief mindful breathing exercises and word retrieval performance in young and older adults

Abstract

We tested whether performing a brief mindful breathing exercise could improve word and name retrieval performance for young and older adult participants by increasing correct responding and decreasing tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states. Young (ages 18–35) and older (ages 60–80) adults were randomly assigned to engage in a short mindful breathing exercise or a control condition in which they listened to a relaxing story. They next performed a difficult definition-naming task (Experiment 1) or a naming task with faces of public figures (Experiment 2). Self-rated state mindfulness was higher for young but not older adults following mindful breathing than the control condition. Correct word retrieval scores correspondingly increased for young but not older adults following the intervention (Experiment 1), but no benefit was obtained when face naming was the dependent variable (Experiment 2). Neither young nor older adult participants' TOT rate decreased following mindful breathing in either experiment. Overall, we can conclude that brief mindful breathing exercises can benefit non-name word retrieval processes in young but not older adults. The improvement in correct naming without the corresponding reduction in TOTs indicates facilitation in lexical access rather than phonological access. Possible reasons for the obtained pattern of results are considered.