Irrelevant visual input interferes with memory tasks based on the generation of visual mental images but has an irregular effect on visual memory tasks. This inconsistent effect may result from methodological differences between the paradigms used for the 2 tasks. In this study, we evaluated the effect of dynamic visual noise (DVN) on the retrieval of visual mental images and visual memories stored in the visual working memory using the retro-cueing paradigm. In Experiment 1, participants memorized sequences of letters presented visually (visual memory) or aurally (visual mental image) and the probe was presented visually. In Experiment 2, the stimuli and probe were presented aurally. The DVN was presented in the interval between a spatial retro-cue and the test stimulus. Informative retro-cue improved performance in both Experiments 1 and 2. The DVN had a significant effect only in Experiment 1, disrupting performance in both visual memory and mental imagery tasks. These results suggest that the retrieval process of representations stored in the visual short-term memory (STM) is the same, regardless of the way these representations are encoded, that is, whether from verbal or visual information. The DVN effect suggests that the informative retro-cue involves a mental image of the cued information. These results show that both memory and mental image tasks are affected by DVN, provided their paradigms have been equated. The effect of the DVN suggests that the information is retrieved from visual working memory to an active state like a visual imagery.

This study investigated the role of attentional resources in processing emotional faces in working memory (WM). Participants memorised two face arrays with the same emotion but different identities and were required to judge whether the test face had the same identity as one of the previous faces. Concurrently during encoding and maintenance, a sequence of high-or-low pitched tones (high load) or white noise bursts (low load) was presented, and participants were required to count how many low-tones were heard. Experiments 1 and 2 used an emotional and neutral test face, respectively. Results revealed a significant WM impairment for sad and angry faces in the high load vs low load condition but not for happy faces. In Experiment 1, participants remembered happy faces better than other emotional faces. In contrast, Experiment 2 showed that performance was poorer for happy than sad faces but not for angry faces. This evidence suggests that depleting attentional resources has less impact on WM for happy faces than other emotional faces, but also that differential effects on WM for emotional faces depend on the presence or absence of emotion in the probe face at retrieval.

A educação a distância, associada ao uso das tecnologias da informação e da comunicação, é uma forma viável de promover a extensão universitária. Tal ação colabora para desenvolver novas formas de ensinar, de aplicar estratégias de ensino e gera dados para compreensão de tais questões, contemplando, assim, os três grandes objetivos da universidade: docência, pesquisa e extensão. O presente trabalho, de natureza descritiva, visa apresentar a produção de um projeto de extensão universitária como possibilidade de aproximação entre universidade e sociedade a partir do processo de criação de cursos de difusão científica de temas de um Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicobiologia. O processo envolveu a escolha das áreas e conteúdos dos cursos, do público-alvo, ambiente virtual de aprendizagem e das formas de divulgação. Foram estruturados quatro cursos, sendo que um deles foi realizado e contou com a participação de 81 alunos. Concluímos que o processo de criação da proposta fomentou habilidades docentes da equipe e que os cursos se configuram como potenciais formas de extensão universitária e divulgação científica. A obtenção de dados dos participantes dos cursos poderá embasar estudos futuros.

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.