{"id":2235,"date":"2015-11-24T17:21:26","date_gmt":"2015-11-24T22:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/?p=2235"},"modified":"2017-07-19T15:43:23","modified_gmt":"2017-07-19T19:43:23","slug":"if-i-could-just-stop-thinking-about-it-the-effect-of-emotional-input-on-working-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/2015\/11\/24\/if-i-could-just-stop-thinking-about-it-the-effect-of-emotional-input-on-working-memory\/","title":{"rendered":"If I could just stop thinking about it! The effect of emotional input on working memory."},"content":{"rendered":"

An overtime loss. It wouldn\u2019t be so bad if it wasn\u2019t all your fault. Now you sit in the \"image001\"library trying to finish your research paper due in an hour; you can\u2019t concentrate as visions of the puck slowly sliding through your goalie pads into the awaiting net behind you consume your thoughts. Do you ever find yourself helplessly replaying events that you\u2019re upset about while trying to focus on something else? But why<\/em> do we have so much trouble thinking when something is bothering us, yet we can work so productively the rest of the time?<\/p>\n

If only we could effectively think about multiple things at the same time. You could process the events of the game last night\u00a0while<\/em>\u00a0writing your paper; you could replay that upsetting fight you had with your boyfriend\u00a0while<\/em>\u00a0studying for your Spanish vocab quiz. Essentially, our lives would be that much more efficient, if only we could process multiple thoughts at once.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, we don\u2019t have this ability because we only have one\u00a0working memory.<\/em>\u00a0According to prominent cognitive psychologist, Alan Baddeley\u2019s working memory model (2000), our working memory controls all of our conscious thoughts\u2014it can be thought of as an executive control center that decides what we are thinking about currently, as well as what we should think about next. Our environment continuously presents new information that we must process; simultaneously, information that we\u2019re actively thinking about reminds us of things we have done or knowledge that we have learned about in the past\u2014 triggering information that is stored in our long-term memory. Thus, our working memory must constantly integrate new and old information, producing a continuous train of thoughts. However, the functioning capabilities of this cognitive system are limited, as it is only able to process so much information at once; it can be easy to take our working memory for granted, as we may not realize how much information must be considered. Click here<\/a>\u00a0to read about another\u00a0interesting way that our working memory effects us!<\/p>\n

Every conscious thing we do, including every decision that we make is a consequence of our working memory. And how we make decisions doesn\u2019t just depend on one piece of information, it depends on\u00a0all\u00a0the information presented to the working memory, which as we now know, includes both incoming and stored information. So, if our ability to function as humans is so contingent on this particular memory system, what affects its performance?<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the past few decades, researchers in the field of cognitive psychology have examined the functioning of the working memory in various contexts. A common occurrence among these studies has identified emotional information as a contributing factor to our working memory capabilities\u2014particularly our ability to make decisions. Decision-making executed by our working memory encompasses simple tasks like determining what we should eat for breakfast or what to wear in the morning; it also extends to much more complex tasks, such as deciding which multiple choice answer is correct on a test, or whether or not to shoot, pass, or dribble the ball in a basketball game. No matter who we are and what we are doing, decision-making is critical in all of our daily lives; thus, its variability in response to emotional stimuli has significant implications for all of us.<\/p>\n

A study conducted by Galindo et al., (2015) explored the effect of emotional valence of visual information on working memory performance. In psychology, emotional valence refers to the response triggered by particular stimuli; so for example, a happy face is considered a\u00a0positively<\/em>\u00a0valenced stimulus since it generally evokes inherently positive or attractive feelings, whereas a sad face is considered to be\u00a0negatively<\/em>\u00a0valenced. An example of a neutral<\/em> valenced stimulus would be a face that is not showing any emotion. Further, in this study, researchers were interested in whether the presentation of emotionally positive, negative, or neutral valenced stimuli would affect individual\u2019s working memory abilities.<\/p>\n

Researchers assembled 240 pictures, grouped into three equal sets of 80 pictures that included facial images, objects, and scenes that depicted positive, negative, or neutral emotional valences. A scene showing two bunnies kissing would be an example of a scene that provokes a positive emotional valence. A picture of a person exhibiting a fearful face would be an example of a negatively valenced facial image whereas a picture of a non-expressive face would be an example of a neutrally valenced image. In order to assess working memory, participants were presented with one image, followed by a 4-second delay, then a second image. The second image was either identical to the first, or it was slightl\"bnnny\"y different. Participants were instructed to maintain the first image in their memory in order to compare\u00a0the second image and determine whether the two were the same or different, see figure right. Each participant underwent a series of trials that included pairs\u00a0of positively, negatively, and neutrally valenced images. The response time and accuracy rate were measured and recorded for each group.<\/p>\n

Galindo et al., (2015) found that images with a negative valence resulted in people making more mistakes and their response times were slower. On the contrary, neutral images resulted in the shortest reaction time and the highest accuracy response. So this means that individuals were much slower and less accurate in processing visual information with negative valence compared to that with positive or neutral valence. These findings suggest that emotional valence has a significant effect on working memory processes, such that negative emotions reduce processing speed, efficiency, and ability. To see the original Galindo et al., (2015) paper\u00a0Click Here<\/a><\/u>.<\/p>\n

As this research suggests, negative emotions actually impair the functioning of our working memory. So when we are upset or reminded of sad things, our ability to make decisions is actually diminished. Our working memory must work to inhibit the associations that our mind automatically triggers in response to sad stimuli, further adding to our working memory\u2019s extensive list of responsibilities. Bradley and Lang (2006) suggest there are two motivational systems, aversive and attractive,that affect behavior. Perhaps by activating attractive stimuli, we would give our working memories a better chance! So the next time we find ourselves frustrated because we are unable to study for a test or focus on a problem set, think of sugar-plums and a crackling Christmas fire!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

References<\/p>\n

Baddeley, A. (2000). The episodic buffer: a new component of working memory?.\u00a0Trends in Cognitive Sciences<\/em>,\u00a04<\/em>, 417-423.<\/p>\n

Bradley,\u00a0M., &\u00a0Lang,\u00a0P.\u00a0(2006). Emotion and motivation. Handbook of psychophysiology. <\/em>Cambridge University Press, 2007<\/p>\n

Galindo, G., Fraga, M., Machinskaya, R., Solovieva, Y., & Mangan, P. (2015). Effect of emotionally valenced stimuli on working memory performance.\u00a0Psychology & Neuroscience<\/em>,\u00a08<\/em>, 333.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An overtime loss. It wouldn\u2019t be so bad if it wasn\u2019t all your fault. Now you sit in the library trying to finish your research paper due in an hour; you can\u2019t concentrate as visions of the puck slowly sliding through your goalie pads into the awaiting net behind you consume your thoughts. Do you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5063,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130416,80215],"tags":[117417,130357],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5063"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2235"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2396,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235\/revisions\/2396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}