Our lab is interested in the role of mindfulness as a protective factor for health and well-being. We investigate mindfulness as a means of reducing maladaptive cognitions (e.g., negativity bias, catastrophic thinking) and its relations with improved mental health (e.g., depression, anxiety), physical health (e.g., pain), and well-being (e.g., life satisfaction, self-esteem).

Representative Publications

Haliwa, I., Sedney, C. L., Rosensteel, M., Smith, S. H., Dekeseredy, P. L., & Shook, N. J. (2026). Trait mindfulness is associated with pain outcome in patients with chronic back pain from a rural sample in the United States. Journal of Neuroscience in Rural Practice.

Wilson, J., M., Lee, J., Strough, J., & Shook, N. J. (2026). The protective influence of trait mindfulness on psychological distress: The mediating role of negative cognition. Cognition and Emotion.

Wilson, J., Haliwa, I., Lee, J., & Shook, N. J. (2023). The role of dispositional mindfulness in the Fear-Avoidance Model of Pain. PLOS ONE, 18, e0280740.

Lee, J., Weiss, A., Ford, C. G., Conyers, D., & Shook, N. J. (2022). The indirect effect of trait mindfulness on life satisfaction though self-esteem and perceived stress. Current Psychology.

Gibb, A., Wilson, J., Ford, C. G., & Shook, N. J. (2022). Does mindfulness reduce negative interpretation bias? Cognition and Emotion, 36, 284-299.

Ford, C. G., Kiken, L. G., Haliwa I., & Shook, N. J. (2022). Negatively biased cognition as a mechanism of mindfulness: A review of the literature. Current Psychology.

Ford, C. G., Haliwa, I., & Shook, N. J. (2021). Mind your gaze: Examining the relation between trait mindfulness and visual attention to valenced images. Behavioural Brain Research, 401, 113063