Mun Chung Jung, Karoly Paul, Okun Morris A
Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.
Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.
Clin J Pain. 2018 Jun;34(6):566-576. doi: 10.1097/AJP.0000000000000569.
Chronic pain exerts a pervasive negative influence on workers' productivity. However, a paucity of research has addressed the mechanisms underlying the pain → productivity relation. In the present study using intensive daily diary data, we examined whether working memory (WM) moderates the positive within-person associations between (1) morning pain intensity and (2) morning negative affect (NA) and later day pain's interference of work-goal (WG) pursuit.
A community sample of 131 adults with chronic pain completed a battery of questionnaires, laboratory-measured WM, and a 21-day daily diary.
WM did not moderate the positive within-person association between morning pain intensity and afternoon/evening ratings of pain's interference with work goal pursuit. However, individuals with higher WM showed significantly attenuated positive within-person association between morning negative affect and pain's interference with afternoon/evening work goal pursuit.
WM appears to protect goal-relevant information from distractions due to negative affective arousal. The continued use of ecologically valid observational and intervention studies would shed further light on the influence of WM on the pursuit of valued work goals in the face of pain and negative affect.
慢性疼痛对工人的生产力产生普遍的负面影响。然而，针对疼痛→生产力关系背后机制的研究却很少。在本研究中，我们使用密集的每日日记数据，检验了工作记忆（WM）是否调节了（1）早晨疼痛强度与（2）早晨消极情绪（NA）之间的正向个体内关联，以及当天晚些时候疼痛对工作目标（WG）追求的干扰。
一个由131名患有慢性疼痛的成年人组成的社区样本完成了一系列问卷调查、实验室测量的工作记忆以及一份为期21天的每日日记。
工作记忆并未调节早晨疼痛强度与下午/晚上疼痛对工作目标追求干扰评分之间的正向个体内关联。然而，工作记忆水平较高的个体在早晨消极情绪与疼痛对下午/晚上工作目标追求干扰之间的正向个体内关联显著减弱。
工作记忆似乎能保护与目标相关的信息免受消极情绪唤醒带来的干扰。继续开展生态效度良好的观察性和干预性研究，将进一步揭示工作记忆在面对疼痛和消极情绪时对追求有价值工作目标的影响。
