Abstract
The mood induction paradigm has been an important tool for investigating the effects of negative emotional states on working memory (WM) executive functions. Though some evidence showed that negative mood has a differential effect on verbal and visuospatial WM, other findings did not report a similar effect. To explore this issue, we examined the negative mood’s impact on verbal and visuospatial WM executive tasks based on grammatical reasoning and visuospatial rotation. Participants with no anxiety or depression disorders performed the tasks before and after negative (n = 14) or neutral (n = 13) mood induction. Participants’ mood at the beginning and the end of the session was assessed by the Present Mood States List (LEAP) and word valence rating. The analyses showed changes in the emotional state of the negative group (ps < .03) but not of the neutral group (ps > .83) in the LEAP instrument. No significant differences between groups were observed in the WM tasks (ps > .33). Performance in the visuospatial WM task improved after mood induction for both groups (p < .05), possibly due to a practice effect. In sum, our findings challenge the view that negative mood modulates WM executive functions; thus, they were discussed considering the similarities and differences between studies that found negative mood effects on WM and those that did not find. Different WM tasks tap distinct processes and components, which may underlie behavioral effects of negative mood on WM tasks.
Highlights
The mood induction paradigm has been an important tool for investigating the effects of negative emotional states on working memory (WM) executive functions
Mood effects on the visuospatial task (VI) task In contrast with Gray’s (2001) findings, we found no support for the hypothesis that negative mood improves performance on visuospatial WM tasks
In summary, our study found no effect of negative mood on verbal and visuospatial WM tasks with high executive demands in healthy participants
Summary
The mood induction paradigm has been an important tool for investigating the effects of negative emotional states on working memory (WM) executive functions. Storbeck (2012) observed a higher depletion of self-control resources (i.e., the ability to inhibit a response or a cognitive bias) when a negative mood state was combined with a verbal WM n-back task in comparison when a negative mood state was combined with a spatial WM n-back task. Evidence has shown a selective effect of emotion on executive and control functions, suggesting that a withdrawal state (e.g., negative mood) can lead to opposite performance patterns in verbal and visuospatial components (Gray, 2001, 2004). It is important to note that Storbeck (2012) did not find performance differences between verbal and spatial WM tasks
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