Previous work suggests that threat-related stimuli are stored to a greater degree in working memory compared to neutral stimuli. However, most of this research has focused on stimuli with physically salient threat attributes, failing to account for how a “neutral” stimulus that has acquired threat-related associations through differential aversive conditioning influences working memory. The current study examined how differentially conditioned safe and threat stimuli are stored in working memory relative to a novel, non-associated stimuli. Participants completed a differential fear conditioning (...) task followed by a change detection task consisting of three conditions across two loads. Results revealed individuals successfully learned to distinguishing CS+ from CS– conditions during the differential aversive conditioning task. Our working memory outcomes indicated successful load manipulation effects, but no statistically significant differences in accuracy, response time, or Pashler’s K measures of working memory capacity between CS+, CS–, or N conditions. However, we observed significantly reduced RT difference scores for the CS+ compared to CS– condition, indicating greater RT differences between the CS+ and N condition vs. the CS– and N condition. These findings suggest that differentially conditioned stimuli have little impact on behavioral outcomes of working memory compared to novel stimuli that had not been associated with previous safe of aversive outcomes, at least in healthy populations. (shrink)

Volume 34, Issue 8, December 2020, Page 1646-1663.

Angry faces have been shown to be detected more efficiently in a crowd of distractors compared to happy faces, known as the anger superiority effect (ASE). The present study investigated whether the ASE could be modified by top-down manipulation of working memory (WM), in central and peripheral visual fields. In central vision, participants held a colour in WM for a final memory test while simultaneously performing a visual search task that required them to determine whether a face showed a different (...) expression from other coloured faces. The colour held in WM matched either the colour of the target face (target-matching), the colour of a distractor face (distractor-matching), or neither (non-matching). Results showed that the ASE was observed when the probability of target-matching trials was low. However, when the top-down WM effect was strengthened by raising the probability of target-matching trials, the ASE in the target-matching condition was completely eliminated. Intriguingly, when the visual search task was substituted by a peripheral crowding task, similar results to central vision were found in the target-matching condition. Taken together, our findings indicate that the ASE is subject to the top-down WM effect, regardless of the visual field. (shrink)

The current study investigated how sad expressions during encoding affected recognition of facial identity in visual working memory and its electrophysiological correlates. Event-related poten...

Previous research has shown that angry and happy faces are perceived as less emotionally intense when shown with averted versus direct gaze. Other work reports that long-term memory for angry faces was poorer when they were encoded with averted versus direct gaze, suggesting that threat signals are diluted when eye contact is not engaged. The current study examined whether gaze modulates working memory for angry and happy faces. In stark contrast to LTM effects, WM for angry faces was not significantly (...) modulated by gaze direction. However, WM for happy faces was significantly enhanced when gaze was averted versus direct. These findings suggest that in WM – when rapid processing and an immediate response is required – averted gaze may alter the meaning behind a smile, and make this kind of expression particularly salient for short-term processing. (shrink)

Previous long-term memory research found that angry faces were more poorly recognised when encoded with averted vs. direct gaze, while memory for happy faces was unaffected by gaze. Contrasti...

Ageing is associated with declines in several cognitive abilities including working memory. The goal of the present study was to assess whether emotional information could reduce the age gap in the quantity and quality of representations in visual WM. Young and older adults completed a serial image recognition task and a colour-image binding task. Results of the SIR task showed worse performance for negative than neutral and positive images within the older group, hence enlarging the age gap in WM. In (...) the CIB task, recall precision was lower in the old than young adults, showing an ageing decline in the quality of WM representations. Positive images tended to improve precision, but this boost was similar for both age groups. In sum, emotional content did not reduce the age gap in visual WM. (shrink)

The ability to temporarily hold information in visual working memory is an important cognitive function as it is not only crucial in everyday life but also in other domains, such as educational settings and academic performance. Even though VWM has been shown to be a stable construct in general, it can be influenced by other factors. For instance, previous research has demonstrated that emotional states or emotional stimuli can influence VWM performance. However, up to date there is a striking lack (...) of research on whether a VWM task, which is used to measure VWM, may induce emotional experiences itself, and whether they in turn affect VWM performance. Some authors have speculated that a standard VWM task arouses emotions in participants and that these task-induced emotions are related to VWM performance. The aim of the present thesis was therefore to establish if and how emotions, should they occur because of the VWM task itself, are linked with individuals’ VWM performance. To meet this objective an interdisciplinary approach was taken and well-established findings from educational psychology were applied to a core cognitive research question, namely that of VWM. In a first qualitative study, by adapting a qualitative method of inquiry, the think-aloud technique, results revealed that the task induced different positive and negative emotions, such as joy and anger, which varied on the inter-individual as well as on the intra-individual level. The emotional experiences seemed to be tied to the implicit achievement requirement of the VWM task. To investigate whether these task-induced emotions were linked to VWM performance, two quantitative studies were carried out. Here, findings revealed that VWM performance was positively linked to joy, and negatively linked to anger, frustration and boredom on the inter-individual and intra-individual level. Notably, these emotions were also affected by an experimental manipulation of task difficulty. This research is the first to demonstrate that a task designed to measure VWM in itself triggers emotions, specifically achievement emotions, which, in turn, are linked with VWM performance. The findings from the studies highlight the relevance of achievement emotions as potentially confounding variables for interpreting VWM scores as resulting from typical laboratory-based paradigms for measuring VWM capacity. Given the relevance of these findings for research on VWM, cognitive research in general and other fields of research in which VWM plays a role, for example academic performance, another aim of the present thesis was to consider further factors, such as achievement goal orientation, which may affect the link between task-induced achievement emotions during a VWM task, and VWM performance. Therefore, a registered report was designed which aims to replicate and further explore the findings from Studies 1 through 3 on the one hand and on the other hand consider the role of further variables in the achievement-emotion-VWM-relationship. Specifically, it is hypothesized that task-induced achievement emotions will correlate with VWM performance and that this link is mediated by subjective task performance. Further, as goal orientation is thought to be strongly related to achievement emotions, it is hypothesized that the emotion-performance links are moderated by performance goal orientation. Finally, it is hypothesized that achievement emotions, performance goal orientation, and task difficulty interact in predicting VWM. N = 225 participants will be recruited to perform the continuous color-report task. Participants’ achievement emotions and subjective task performance will be obtained by self-report after the VWM task. It is expected that the findings from the registered report will further highlight the relevance of achievement emotions as a potentially confounding variable for interpreting an individual’s VWM ability. (shrink)