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The emotional startle effect is disrupted by a concurrent working memory task

King, R.; Schaefer, A.

Authors

R. King

A. Schaefer



Abstract

Working memory (WM) processes are often thought to play an important role in the cognitive regulation of negative emotions. However, little is known about how they influence emotional processing. We report two experiments that tested whether a concurrent working memory task could modulate the emotional startle eyeblink effect, a well-known index of emotional processing. In both experiments, emotionally negative and neutral pictures were viewed in two conditions: a "cognitive load" (CL) condition, in which participants had to actively maintain information in working memory (WM) while viewing the pictures, and a control "no load" (NL) condition. Picture-viewing instructions were identical across CL and NL. In both experiments, results showed a significant reduction of the emotional modulation of the startle eyeblink reflex in the CL condition compared to the NL condition. These findings suggest that a concurrent WM task disrupts emotional processing even when participants are directing visual focus on emotionally relevant information.

Citation

King, R., & Schaefer, A. (2011). The emotional startle effect is disrupted by a concurrent working memory task. Psychophysiology, 48(2), 269-276. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2010.01062.x

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Feb 1, 2011
Deposit Date Oct 11, 2010
Journal Psychophysiology
Print ISSN 0048-5772
Electronic ISSN 1469-8986
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 48
Issue 2
Pages 269-276
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2010.01062.x
Keywords Startle, Emotion, Working memory, Attention, Cognitive control.