A Behavioral Experimental Study on Verbal Working Memory Capacity Differences Induced by Positive and Negative Emotions

Abstract

The purpose of this study is: Firstly, to explore the influences of different emotion states on verbal working memory capacity by experiment. Secondly, to put forward advices for classroom education and student learning basing on the experiment results, so as to improve the efficiencies of students in learning and teachers in teaching. This study experimentally investigated the working memory capacity differences of 90 college students under positive, negative, and neutral emotion states based on two parts: emotional arousal and verbal working memory capacity test. Firstly, the positive, neutral, and negative emotions of the subjects were aroused by watching three videos. Then operation-word span test was performed on the subjects using a program compiled by E-prime2.0 to measure the verbal working memory span of the subjects. In accordance with the number of words recalled by the subjects, the verbal working memory capacities of the subjects were assessed. The experimental results suggested that: the subjects in emotion state of joy presented significantly higher verbal working memory span than those in calmness; the subjects in emotion state of calmness showed significantly higher verbal working memory span than those in sadness; the subjects in emotion state of joy showed significantly higher verbal working memory span than those in sadness. The innovation of this research is mainly reflected in its research direction, namely, a specific aspect of working memory.