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Emotional Interference: The Impact of Task-relevant Emotional Stimuli on Cognitive Performance

Bowling, Alexandra J.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1429958352

Abstract Details

2015, Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, Psychology, General.
Baddeley’s model of working memory suggests that there are four components used to manipulate and maintain information for a task. According to this model, there is a system called the central executive which allocates attention resources to the components of working memory. Since attention resources are limited, working memory capacity is limited (Baddeley, 2007; Baddeley, 2012). The limited resources theory suggests that there are limited attention resources and that the addition of each novel event takes resources away from the task at hand generating performance decline on that task (Lichtenstein-Vidne, Henik, & Safad, 2012). Emotion can be seen as an event which would require attention resources, predicting that the presence of emotion in a task would impair performance (Dolcos & McCarthy, 2006, King & Schaefer, 2011; Black, 2008). The current study used an n-back working memory task to compare participants’ performance on blocks of stimuli that varied in valence and content. There were blocked trials of three different stimulus content types: faces, nature images, and words, and three different valence types: positive, negative, and neutral. I predicted to find slower reaction times and poorer accuracy for emotionally-charged stimuli, particularly for negative stimuli. Mood was also assessed through the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988) to assess if mood interacted with participants’ performance. Overall, results indicated an effect of content and valence on working memory performance. The general findings support the hypothesis that emotionally-charged stimuli elicit performance decrement for working memory tasks.
Mary Fuhs (Advisor)
Robert Crutcher (Committee Member)
Benjamin Kunz (Committee Member)
Psychology
working memory, emotion, n-back, limited resources theory, central executive, attention

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Bowling, A. J. (2015). Emotional Interference: The Impact of Task-relevant Emotional Stimuli on Cognitive Performance [Master's thesis, University of Dayton]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1429958352

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Bowling, Alexandra. Emotional Interference: The Impact of Task-relevant Emotional Stimuli on Cognitive Performance. 2015. University of Dayton, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1429958352.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Bowling, Alexandra. "Emotional Interference: The Impact of Task-relevant Emotional Stimuli on Cognitive Performance." Master's thesis, University of Dayton, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1429958352

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

dayton1429958352
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This open access ETD is published by University of Dayton and OhioLINK.