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The Impact of Affective Information on Working Memory: A Psychometric Approach

The Impact of Affective Information on Working Memory: A Psychometric Approach It has been debated whether working memory (WM) performance is modulated by the valence of the stimuli that are being processed. A recent meta-analysis revealed that at the behavioral level and in individuals without mental health problems, mean-level performance differences in WM tasks with neutral versus affective conditions are small to negligible. We took this finding an important step further by employing a psychometric approach. This is an important refinement of previous work because even in the absence of mean-level differences, differential processing of affective versus nonaffective information may still be occurring. We examined whether at the construct level, 2 latent WM factors could be distinguished in capturing the processing of neutral and affective stimuli, respectively. Applying confirmatory factor analyses (N = 183 university students) to a battery of 18 tasks (3 n-back paradigms crossed with 3 stimulus types and neutral vs. affective valence), the 2 factors correlated perfectly. This result was replicated when neutral stimuli were analyzed together with either positive or negative stimuli. Based on individual differences, the processing of affective versus nonaffective stimuli in WM therefore cannot be distinguished, at least not in a student sample of younger adults. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition American Psychological Association

The Impact of Affective Information on Working Memory: A Psychometric Approach

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Publisher
American Psychological Association
Copyright
© 2022 American Psychological Association
ISSN
0278-7393
eISSN
1939-1285
DOI
10.1037/xlm0001165
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

It has been debated whether working memory (WM) performance is modulated by the valence of the stimuli that are being processed. A recent meta-analysis revealed that at the behavioral level and in individuals without mental health problems, mean-level performance differences in WM tasks with neutral versus affective conditions are small to negligible. We took this finding an important step further by employing a psychometric approach. This is an important refinement of previous work because even in the absence of mean-level differences, differential processing of affective versus nonaffective information may still be occurring. We examined whether at the construct level, 2 latent WM factors could be distinguished in capturing the processing of neutral and affective stimuli, respectively. Applying confirmatory factor analyses (N = 183 university students) to a battery of 18 tasks (3 n-back paradigms crossed with 3 stimulus types and neutral vs. affective valence), the 2 factors correlated perfectly. This result was replicated when neutral stimuli were analyzed together with either positive or negative stimuli. Based on individual differences, the processing of affective versus nonaffective stimuli in WM therefore cannot be distinguished, at least not in a student sample of younger adults.

Journal

Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition – American Psychological Association

Published: Jul 25, 2023

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