Threat of shock reduces working memory capacity: An ERP study
Mentor 1
Christine L. Larson
Location
Union Wisconsin Room
Start Date
5-4-2019 1:30 PM
End Date
5-4-2019 3:30 PM
Description
An abundance of research has demonstrated that anxiety adversely affects cognition. Working memory, a domain of cognition involving the active maintenance of information over a brief interval of time, can be negatively impacted by anxiety. Current theories propose that anxiety leads to an overall reduction in working memory capacity, which is due to the inability to filter out task-irrelevant threatening stimuli from entering working memory. Based on this prior work, we investigated the effects a threatening condition has on working memory capacity and the ability to filter task-irrelevant neutral task-based stimuli. One event-related potential, the contralateral delay activity (CDA), indexes the quantity of items retained in working memory, thus serving as an electrophysiological index of working memory capacity. Forty-six undergraduate participants completed a change detection task while electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. The task was completed in two conditions: Threat of shock and safe. The change detection task consisted of three set sizes: Two targets, two targets and two neutral distracters, and four targets. The two targets and two neutral distracters condition was incorporated to calculate the ability to filter task-irrelevant distracter stimuli. CDA was calculated by computing the difference between contralateral and ipsilateral waveforms for occipital/parietal channel clusters. Results found that CDA was reduced under the threat of shock condition compared to the safe condition. However, there were no differences in filtering efficiency CDA for both conditions. These results suggest that working memory capacity is reduced under threatening contexts, but individuals may still maintain the ability to filter distracting information from working memory.
Threat of shock reduces working memory capacity: An ERP study
Union Wisconsin Room
An abundance of research has demonstrated that anxiety adversely affects cognition. Working memory, a domain of cognition involving the active maintenance of information over a brief interval of time, can be negatively impacted by anxiety. Current theories propose that anxiety leads to an overall reduction in working memory capacity, which is due to the inability to filter out task-irrelevant threatening stimuli from entering working memory. Based on this prior work, we investigated the effects a threatening condition has on working memory capacity and the ability to filter task-irrelevant neutral task-based stimuli. One event-related potential, the contralateral delay activity (CDA), indexes the quantity of items retained in working memory, thus serving as an electrophysiological index of working memory capacity. Forty-six undergraduate participants completed a change detection task while electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. The task was completed in two conditions: Threat of shock and safe. The change detection task consisted of three set sizes: Two targets, two targets and two neutral distracters, and four targets. The two targets and two neutral distracters condition was incorporated to calculate the ability to filter task-irrelevant distracter stimuli. CDA was calculated by computing the difference between contralateral and ipsilateral waveforms for occipital/parietal channel clusters. Results found that CDA was reduced under the threat of shock condition compared to the safe condition. However, there were no differences in filtering efficiency CDA for both conditions. These results suggest that working memory capacity is reduced under threatening contexts, but individuals may still maintain the ability to filter distracting information from working memory.
