Hou Tianya, Xie Yawei, Zhang Jianguo, Sun Zhuoer, Yin Qianlan, Li Ziqiang, Cai Wenpeng, Dong Wei, Deng Guanghui, Mao Xiaofei
Faculty of Psychology, Naval Medical University, Shanghai 200433, People's Republic of China.
R Soc Open Sci. 2023 Jun 7;10(6):221128. doi: 10.1098/rsos.221128. eCollection 2023 Jun.
Although many studies have explored the association between negative emotion and working memory, the findings remain controversial. The present study investigated the role of avoidance-motivational intensity in modulating the effect of negative emotion on different processes (maintenance versus manipulation) of verbal and spatial working memory. Two experiments employed the modified delayed match-to-sample paradigms to separate the two processes of verbal and spatial working memory under different emotional states, respectively. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to perform the delayed match-to-sample task with or without reordering the characters (manipulation process of verbal working memory). In Experiment 2, mental rotation was used as the manipulation process of spatial working memory. The results showed that negative emotion only affected the manipulation process, but not the maintenance process. Relative to neutral and low avoidance-motivated negative conditions, the manipulation processes of both types of working memory were impaired under the high avoidance-motivated negative condition. No significant difference was observed between low avoidance-motivated negative condition and neutral condition. Our results are discussed in relation to efficiency processing theory and motivational dimensional model of affect. We conclude that negative emotional states with high avoidance-motivational intensity impair the manipulation process of verbal and spatial working memory.
尽管许多研究探讨了负面情绪与工作记忆之间的关联，但其研究结果仍存在争议。本研究调查了回避动机强度在调节负面情绪对言语和空间工作记忆的不同过程（维持与操作）的影响中所起的作用。两项实验分别采用改良的延迟样本匹配范式，在不同情绪状态下分离言语和空间工作记忆的两个过程。在实验1中，要求参与者在对字符进行重新排序（言语工作记忆的操作过程）或不重新排序的情况下执行延迟样本匹配任务。在实验2中，心理旋转被用作空间工作记忆的操作过程。结果表明，负面情绪仅影响操作过程，而不影响维持过程。相对于中性和低回避动机的负面条件，在高回避动机的负面条件下，两种类型工作记忆的操作过程均受损。在低回避动机的负面条件和中性条件之间未观察到显著差异。我们结合效率加工理论和情感动机维度模型对研究结果进行了讨论。我们得出结论，具有高回避动机强度的负面情绪状态会损害言语和空间工作记忆的操作过程。
