Mindfulness meditation is a form of secular meditation that emphasizes non-judgmental awareness of the present moment. Research into mindfulness has greatly expanded in recent years (Davidson & Kasniak, 2015) and a growing literature has documented effects of mindfulness training on cognition. However, the specific aspects of mindfulness meditation training for novice practitioners that might influence cognition remain unexplored. The present study used a rigorous, dual-blind design to investigate whether the attention-monitoring component of mindfulness meditation reduces mind-wandering and improves performance during reading comprehension and sustained attention tasks. When compared with relaxation meditation, mindfulness training improved recall of specific details from a text but did not reduce mind-wandering or affect sustained attention. The results are discussed with respect to design considerations when studying a meditation intervention.