The Effect Of Negative Emotional Information Represented By Working Memory On Attention Bias In Individuals With State Anxiety

Attention bias has been a hot topic in anxiety research in recent years.Individuals are able to notice negative stimuli faster than neutral stimuli and have difficulty disengaging attention from negative stimuli,a phenomenon known as negative attention bias.A large number of studies have confirmed that due to the existence of abnormal cognitive processing mechanisms,anxious individuals have a more pronounced attention bias effect on negative stimuli.Currently,studies have found that verbal,auditory,and even imaginary information from working memory has attentional guidance effects.However,research on whether emotional information from working memory can guide attentional selection is scarce,and no consistent conclusions have been reached.At the same time,only a few studies were on emotional health subjects,and the conclusions obtained could not be directly generalized to individuals with emotional disorders.Therefore,whether emotional information from working memory can influence visual attentional selection in anxious individuals is of great practical importance,but it is not yet known.In summary,the present study will investigate whether there is an attentional guidance effect of emotional information from working memory on individuals with state anxiety and the mechanism of the effect.This study included a total of three experiments.Experiment 1 focused on the effect of emotional validity of working memory representations on the attentional bias of state anxious individuals.Experiment 1 used a mixed experimental design of 2(emotional validity of working memory representations: neutral,negative)× 2(subject type: high state anxiety group,low state anxiety group)× 3(consistency: consistent condition,inconsistent condition,baseline condition)to manipulate subjects’ levels of state anxiety,and emotional validity of working memory representations.The results revealed that both high and low state anxious individuals had negative attentional bias,but the negative information of the working memory representation only affected the attentional bias of high state anxious individuals,specifically by hindering the cognitive operations of high state anxious individuals,while it did not have a significant effect on low state anxious individuals.Experiment 1 found that negative working memory representations do affect negative attentional bias in individuals with high state anxiety,but emotions include not only potency,but also arousal is an important factor.It was not possible to obtain through Experiment 1exactly what factors play an important role in this,and does this attentional guidance effect change depending on the arousal of the working memory pictures? Therefore,Experiment 2used a mixed experimental design of 4(emotional arousal of working memory representations:negative high arousal,negative low arousal,positive high arousal,positive low arousal)× 2(subject type: high state anxiety group,low state anxiety group)× 3(consistency: consistent condition,inconsistent condition,baseline condition)to manipulate subjects’ levels of state anxiety,emotional validity of working memory representations,and arousal levels.The results showed that only the negative high arousal working memory representation facilitated the cognitive performance of high state anxious individuals,while neither the negative low arousal nor the other two positive conditions affected the attentional bias of high state anxious individuals,while none of the four emotional conditions had any effect on low state anxious individuals.Experiments 1 and 2 confirmed that the negative attentional bias of individuals with high state anxiety is influenced by the emotional information of working memory representations,so how to reduce or even eliminate this negative influence has important practical implications.Based on the evidence provided by previous studies,Experiment 3 added cognitive load to a working memory task in an attempt to explore whether the cognitive load of working memory representations would reduce the negative attentional bias of individuals with high state anxiety.Experiment III used a mixed experimental design of 3(cognitive load: high cognitive load,low cognitive load,no cognitive load)× 2(subject type: high state anxiety group,low state anxiety group)× 3(consistency: consistent condition,inconsistent condition,baseline condition)to manipulate subjects’ levels of state anxiety,and working memory load.The results showed that as cognitive load increased,the negative attentional bias disappeared and their operational performance on the cognitive task was significantly hindered in the high state anxiety group,but cognitive load did not have a significant effect on the low state anxiety group.This study concluded the following: negative attentional bias exists in both high and low state anxious individuals,but emotional information from working memory only affects high state anxious individuals;high and low arousal levels of positive emotions do not affect individuals’ completion of cognitive tasks,while negative high arousal emotions only affect negative attentional bias in high state anxious individuals;high cognitive load conditions affect high state anxious individuals’ completion of cognitive tasks and even make their negative attentional bias disappear,which has important theoretical and practical implications for treating negative attentional bias in anxious individuals.