Cognitive Flexibility, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and Mindfulness: A Novel Test of Their Associations Using Self-Guided Transitions
Mental health, including elevated levels of anxiety, is a growing concern in college
students. Some consequences of anxiety are impaired cognitive flexibility and attentional
deficits, which may, however, be combatted through mindfulness. Self-guided transitions (SGTs) provide a measure of cognitive flexibility and attention using switching tasks that mimic the autonomous and voluntary nature of decision-making in daily tasks. The current study focuses on an SGT task that used anagram (ANA) problem-solving. 128 undergraduate students completed a questionnaire that assessed their generalized anxiety (GA) and trait mindfulness levels. Then participants completed the ANA task during a 90-minute researcher-led Zoom session. High generalized anxiety did not predict worse performance on the ANA task in terms of fluency (i.e., generate fewer correct responses) or switching, but was significantly correlated with longer average dwell length compared to those with low GA. With a further look at GA as high or not high as levels that reflect the diagnosis process, participants with higher GA have significantly average dwell length but there is not a significant association between GA and fluency. This may be explained by hindered cognitive flexibility and/or the rumination characteristic of anxiety, which would not benefit fluency. Mindfulness is significantly correlated with GA as previous literature suggests, but not consistently across the cognitive flexibility measures. While there
were minimal associations between the cognitive flexibility (ANA task), GA, and mindfulness
outside of those highlighted, more significant associations may emerge with other SGTs or in a larger sample. Further research may consider these aspects to corroborate and expand on whether there are cognitive flexibility implications for the growing mental health concerns and if mindfulness may be beneficial.