Positivity effects in working memory: The effects of emotional valence and task relevance

Ding, Lin-jie; Li, Xu; Yin, Shufei

doi:10.3724/sp.j.1042.2021.00652

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…It remains unclear whether the valence of emotional distractors affect WM performance in older and young adults differently. Thus, although much effort has been devoted to investigating the age-related positivity effect in WM, there is still debate about its underlying mechanisms [ 13 , 21 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aging and distractor resistance in working memory: Does emotional valence matter?

et al. 2022

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Emotional stimuli used as targets of working memory (WM) tasks can moderate age-related differences in WM performance, showing that aging is associated with reductions in negativity bias. This phenomenon is referred to as the positivity effect. However, there is little research on whether emotional distractors have a similar moderating effect. Moreover, the underlying neural mechanism of this effect has not been studied. In this study, we examined the behavioral and neurophysiological basis for age differences in resistance to emotional distractors within WM. Methods Older adults (n = 30, ages 60–74) and young adults (n = 35, ages 19–26) performed a 2-back task in which a digit was superimposed on a face with a happy, angry, or neutral expression as a distractor. Event-related potential (ERP) was simultaneously recorded to assess P2, N2, and later positive potential (LPP) amplitudes. Results Older adults were less accurate and slower than young adults on the WM task. Moreover, the results demonstrated a significant interaction between age and emotional valence on response accuracy, young adults' performance was worse when the distractor was neutral or positive than when it was negative, but there was no effect of the emotional valence of distractors on older adults’ WM performance. ERP analyses revealed greater P2 amplitude in older adults than young adults, regardless of the emotional valence of distractors. However, older adults and young adults did not differ on N2 or LPP amplitude, and negative distractors elicited greater N2 than positive distractors in both age groups. Conclusions The behavioral findings provided evidence of age-related reductions in negativity bias. Thus, the behavioral measures indicated a positivity effect in WM. However, the ERP results did not show this same interaction. These discrepant results raise questions about whether and to what extent older and young adults differ in controlling the effect of emotional distractors in WM.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%