Abstract
The present study aimed to examine the effects of working memory capacity (WMC) and state anxiety (SA) on attentional control. WMC was manipulated by (a) dividing participants into low- and high-WMC groups (Experiment 1), and (b) using working memory training to improve WMC (Experiment 2). SA was manipulated by creating low- and high-SA conditions. Attentional control was evaluated by using antisaccade task. Results demonstrated that (a) higher WMC indicated better attentional control (Experiments 1 and 2); (b) the effects of SA on attentional control were inconsistent because SA impaired attentional control in Experiment 1, but favored attentional control in Experiment 2; and (c) the interaction of SA and WMC was not significant (Experiments 1 and 2). This study directly manipulated WMC by working memory training, which provided more reliable evidence for controlled attention view of WMC and new supportive evidence for working memory training (i.e., far transfer effect on attentional control). And the refinement of the relationship between anxiety and attentional control proposed by Attentional Control Theory was also discussed.
Highlights
Attentional control is one of the key components of human perception, which requires an individual to focus on the task-relevant information and resist the interference of task-irrelevant information (Knudsen, 2007)
56 participants were sorted based on the operation-word span task (OSPAN) scores, and half of them were selected from the top half of the distribution as high-working memory capacity (WMC) group (n = 28), and another half as low-WMC group (n = 28), see Table 1 for the descriptive data of OSPAN scores
The preliminary analysis revealed that trait anxiety (TA) was not applicable as a covariant variable1, so typical 2 × 2 ANOVA was conducted for latency and error rate respectively, regardless of TA (it should be noted there was no significant difference on T-AI scores between low- and high-WMC group, t(54) = −0.439, p = 0.662, demonstrating that that TA is not the main contributor of the effects on latency or error rate)
Summary
Attentional control is one of the key components of human perception, which requires an individual to focus on the task-relevant information and resist the interference of task-irrelevant information (i.e., distractor) (Knudsen, 2007). There were three hypotheses in Experiment 1: H1-1: SA impairs attentional control, that is, the first correct antisaccade latency (latency) would be longer and the percentage of incorrect saccades (error rate) would be higher under high-SA condition compared with lowSA condition This hypothesis aimed to explain previous inconsistent results of SA on attentional control. H1-2: high-WMC individuals have better attentional control, that is, the latency would be shorter and the error rate would be lower for high-WMC group compared with low-WMC group This hypothesis is a replication of previous studies. H1-3: WMC modulates the effect of SA on attentional control, that is, the increase of latency and error rate under high-SA would be less obvious for high-WMC group compared with low-WMC group This hypothesis aimed to explain previous inconsistent results of interaction between SA and WMC
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