Abstract
BackgroundTrait anxiety is a pervasive tendency to attend to and experience fears and worries to a disproportionate degree, across various situations. Decreased vulnerability to trait anxiety has been linked to having higher working memory capacity and better emotion regulation; however, the relationship between these factors has not been well-established.ObjectiveThis study sought to determine if participants who undergo emotional working memory training will have significantly lower trait anxiety post-training. The study also sought to determine if emotion regulation mediated the relationship between working memory training and trait anxiety.MethodAn experimental group comprising of 49 participants underwent 20 days of computerized emotional working memory training, which involved viewing a continuous stream of emotionally-charged content on a grid, and then remembering the location and color of items presented on the grid. The control group comprised of 51 participants.ResultsParticipants of the experimental group had significantly lower trait anxiety compared to controls, post-training. Subsequent mediation analysis determined that working memory training capacity gains were significantly related to anxiety reduction as measured by form Y2 of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-Y2). Emotion regulation, as measured by the Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), was found not to mediate between working memory capacity gains and trait anxiety reduction.ConclusionWorking memory capacity gains and reductions in levels of trait anxiety were observed following emotional working memory training. The study may therefore be useful in informing interventions targeted at improving working memory capacity, and reducing levels of trait anxiety. Moreover, it proposes for future research to further look into the mediating role of emotion regulation via the development or utilization of more comprehensive measures of emotion regulation.
Highlights
Emotional working memory training is a working memory training program that makes use of emotionally-charged stimuli for exercises aimed at increasing working memory capacity (Mammarella, 2014)
With regard to working memory training targeted at reducing trait anxiety, studies that have tackled this include the works of Sari et al (2015); Hadwin and Richards (2016), and Beloe and Derakshan (2019), who found that working memory training was associated with lower levels of trait anxiety or vulnerability to trait anxiety, and the works of Wanmaker et al (2015) and Leone de Voogd et al (2016), who found no significant difference in anxiety levels between experimental and control groups
When linked to the work of Cisler et al (2010), who stated that emotional regulation plays a vital role in alleviating anxiety such that anxious experiences can be augmented or diminished, it can be suggested that increased working memory capacity via emotional working memory training can improve emotion regulation, reduce symptoms of trait anxiety
Summary
Trait anxiety is a pervasive tendency to attend to and experience fears and worries to a disproportionate degree, across various situations. Decreased vulnerability to trait anxiety has been linked to having higher working memory capacity and better emotion regulation; the relationship between these factors has not been well-established
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