Facilitating Psychological Closure and Emotional Change Through Mindfulness Meditation

February 26, 2026 updated by: Anas Alsayed Hasan, University of Windsor

Mindful Recollection: Attending to the Present Before Resolving the Past

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if mindfulness meditation can improve closure and emotion towards unresolved memories in an undergraduate student population. This will be tested through a brief, novel intervention called Mindful Recollection, where participants transition immediately from mindfulness meditation into the recollection of an unresolved memory. The secondary aim of the study is to investigate the mechanisms of change underlying Mindful Recollection. Overall then, the main questions this study aims to answer are:

  • Does mindful recollection reduce negative emotions associated with unresolved event memories?
  • Can increases in acceptance, decentering, and reappraisal account for the observed effects of mindful recollection on negative emotion?
  • Does mindful recollection facilitate closure towards unresolved event memories?
  • Can increases in acceptance, decentering, and reappraisal account for the observed effects of mindful recollection on closure?

Researchers will compare the Mindful Recollection intervention to a mind-wandering control task to see if mindfulness meditation uniquely produces positive changes in emotion and closure above and beyond placebo. Mindful Recollection will involve a 13-minute audio-guided mindfulness meditation followed immediately by 2 minutes of memory recollection. The control task will involve 13-minutes of audio-guided mind-wandering followed immediately by 2 minutes of memory recollection.

Participants will:

  • Complete pretest measures of emotion and closure towards an unresolved event memory.
  • Engage in either the Mindful Recollection intervention or the placebo control task after a 24-72 hour delay.
  • Complete post-test measures of emotion and closure towards the same unresolved event memory.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

220

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • Ontario
      • Windsor, Ontario, Canada, N9B 3P4
        • University of Windsor
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Ability to hear and understand spoken instructions clearly; English language proficiency

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Trauma history/Dissociative tendencies

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Mindful Recollection
Behavioral: Mindfulness Meditation
Mindful Recollection consists of a 15-minute audio-guided task (13 minutes of guided meditation followed immediately by 2 minutes of unresolved event recollection). The 13-minute guided meditation is intended to facilitate a broad mindful awareness by working through sensations of the breath, body, and mind (in that respective order), eventually coming together in a practice of open monitoring - the non-selective observation of any and all aspects of experience. The 2-minute recollection period will have participants transition from meditating to recalling and reflecting on an unresolved memory they identified during the pretest period (approximately 24-72 hours prior).
Sham Comparator: Mind-Wandering
Behavioral: Mind-Wandering Task
The mind-wandering control task consists of a 15-minute audio-guided task (13 minutes of mind-wandering followed immediately by 2 minutes of unresolved event recollection). Mind-wandering is a common sham mindfulness technique that repeatedly prompts participants to let their thoughts flow freely, thinking about whatever comes to mind. This exposes participants to the same procedure (i.e., listening to a 13-minute audio-recording) without receiving guided mindful meditation instructions. Thus, this condition will guide participants to have a typical mental experience of thinking freely about whatever comes to mind, without developing a mindful awareness of their internal experience.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Pre- to Post-Test Changes in Psychological Closure using the Closure and Resolution Scale (CRS)
Time Frame: Baseline (24-72 hours prior to the intervention) and post-test (immediately after intervention)
Items are rated on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = Completely disagree, 7 = Completely agree), with higher scores reflecting greater levels of closure and resolution.
Baseline (24-72 hours prior to the intervention) and post-test (immediately after intervention)
Pre- to Post-Test Changes in Negative Emotion using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS)
Time Frame: Baseline (24-72 hours prior to the intervention) and post-test (immediately after intervention)
Items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Not at all, 5 = Extremely), with higher scores reflecting a stronger endorsement of that emotional experience.
Baseline (24-72 hours prior to the intervention) and post-test (immediately after intervention)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Experiential Acceptance Towards Thoughts and Emotions
Time Frame: Immediately after the intervention (post-test)

Using the acceptance subscale of The Southampton Experiential Avoidance and Acceptance Scale.

Items are rated on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree, 7 = Strongly agree), with higher scores indicating greater levels of openness towards internal experience.
Immediately after the intervention (post-test)
Reappraisal
Time Frame: Immediately after the intervention (post-test)
Using the Regulation of Emotion Systems Survey. Items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agree), with higher scores indicating greater engagement in reappraisal during the assigned task.
Immediately after the intervention (post-test)
State Decentering
Time Frame: Immediately after the intervention (post-test)
Using the Metacognitive Processes of Decentering-state scale. Items are rated on an 11-point Likert scale (0 = Not at all, 10 = Very much), with higher scores reflecting greater levels of state decentering (i.e., being aware of, disidentified with, and nonreactive to thoughts and emotions).
Immediately after the intervention (post-test)

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Memory Characteristics
Time Frame: Immediately after the intervention (post-test)

Using the Memory Experience Questionnaire Short-Form. Measures distinct qualities of autobiographical memory (e.g., coherence, vividness, visual perspective).

Items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agree), with higher scores indicating greater endorsement of a given memory characteristic.
Immediately after the intervention (post-test)
State Mindfulness (Manipulation Check)
Time Frame: Immediately after the intervention (post-test)

Using the State Mindfulness Scale. Administered as a manipulation check to measure participants' reports of mindful states during the assigned tasks.

Items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Not at all, 5 = Very well), with higher scores indicating greater states of mindfulness.
Immediately after the intervention (post-test)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Windsor

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

March 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

August 1, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

August 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 20, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 20, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

February 27, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 2, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 26, 2026

Last Verified

February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • REB #25-135

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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