Cognitive trait anxiety, stress and effort interact to predict inhibitory control

Edwards, Mark S.; Edwards, Elizabeth J.; Lyvers, Michael

doi:10.1080/02699931.2016.1152232

Cited by 31 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Similarly, Edwards et al (2015Edwards et al ( , 2017 investigated potential impacts of anxiety on executive functions. They manipulated stress by informing participants that the upcoming tasks were indicative of intelligence, and that they were performing worse than expected.…”

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impacts of trait anxiety on visual working memory, as a function of task demand and situational stress

Spalding

Obonsawin

Eynon

et al. 2020

Cognition and Emotion

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Higher trait anxiety can impair cognitive functioning via attention, but relatively little is known about the impacts on visual working memory. These were investigated using previously validated visual feature binding tasks. In Study 1, participants' memory for visual features (shapes) and feature bindings (coloured shapes) was assessed. Stimulus presentation was simultaneous or sequential, varying attentional demand, and participants were grouped according to trait cognitive anxiety (low, moderate, high). No reliable effect of trait anxiety, either cognitive or somatic, was found on memory accuracy, but moderate trait cognitive anxiety was associated with faster correct response times (i.e. increased efficiency) when stimuli were sequentially presented. In Study 2, the role of situational stress was explored during a simultaneously presented task. Higher trait cognitive and somatic anxiety were both associated with poorer efficiency during both shape and binding memory tasks. Trait somatic anxiety also predicted poorer binding effectiveness (i.e. accuracy), in those reporting higher state cognitive anxiety. Situational stress predicted binding effectiveness, but never interacted with trait anxiety, and was therefore not necessary to observe these trait anxiety-visual working memory relationships. Trait cognitive and somatic anxiety, and situational stress, therefore each influence visual working memory performance.

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Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Again, to test our prediction that trait cognitive anxiety is the specific component that will impact task performance, it was necessary also to test the effects of the somatic component (e.g. Edwards et al, 2017).…”

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of trait anxiety on visual working memory, as a function of task demand and situational stress

Spalding

Obonsawin

Eynon

et al. 2020

Cognition and Emotion

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It was found that heightened anxiety vulnerability was associated with elevated attentional distraction by the distractor stimuli. Similarly, Edwards et al showed that heightened anxiety vulnerability was associated with reduced inhibitory control during a No-Go paradigm, which requires participants to execute volitional responses on target-absent trials and inhibit responding on relatively rare and randomly presented target-present trials [ 11 ]. Given these and other findings demonstrating association between elevated anxiety vulnerability and reduced inhibitory attentional control performance (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inhibitory attentional control in anxiety: Manipulating cognitive load in an antisaccade task

et al. 2018

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Theorists have proposed that heightened anxiety vulnerability is characterised by reduced attentional control performance and have made the prediction in turn that elevating cognitive load will adversely impact attentional control performance for high anxious individuals to a greater degree than low anxious individuals. Critically however, existing attempts to test this prediction have been limited in their methodology and have presented inconsistent findings. Using a methodology capable of overcoming the limitations of previous research, the present study sought to investigate the effect of manipulating cognitive load on inhibitory attentional control performance of high anxious and low anxious individuals. High and low trait anxious participants completed an antisaccade task, requiring the execution of prosaccades towards, or antisaccades away from, emotionally toned stimuli while eye movements were recorded. Participants completed the antisaccade task under conditions that concurrently imposed a lesser cognitive load, or greater cognitive load. Analysis of participants’ saccade latencies revealed high trait anxious participants demonstrated generally poorer inhibitory attentional control performance as compared to low trait anxious participants. Furthermore, conditions imposing greater cognitive load, as compared to lesser cognitive load, resulted in enhanced inhibitory attentional control performance across participants generally. Crucially however, analyses did not reveal an effect of cognitive load condition on anxiety-linked differences in inhibitory attentional control performance, indicating that elevating cognitive load did not adversely impact attentional control performance for high anxious individuals to a greater degree than low anxious individuals. Hence, the present findings are inconsistent with predictions made by some theorists and are in contrast to the findings of earlier investigations. These findings further highlight the need for research into the relationship between anxiety, attentional control, and cognitive load.

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“…Given that the scores on STAI-S were somewhat low irrespective of the level of trait anxiety, it is possible that intense state anxiety might affect executive processes under stressful situations. This possibility is becoming further elucidated in recent studies [33] [34].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modulatory Effect of Motivation on the Association of Trait Anxiety and Cognitive Performance: A Pupillometric Study

Hoshino¹,

Tanno²

2017

JBBS

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The attentional control theory (ACT) proposes that trait anxiety disrupts functional efficiency of executive control of attention relating to working memory system such as shifting. ACT also emphasizes the modulatory role of motivation in anxiety on cognitive task performance. The present study investigated the association of trait anxiety-related inefficiencies in attentional shift and working memory performance in conjunction with the level of motivation. A variation of complex span paradigm is designed to systematically manipulate the time constraint on shifting attentional focus back and forth between working memory contents and processing task was used in this study. In the experiment, participants high and low in trait anxiety were allocated either high or low motivation induction conditions, and performed a series of complex span tasks. They also completed a state anxiety measure before and after the experimental task. Motivational states were assessed by the pupil dilation, which is known to reflect the amount of cognitive effort invested on the task at hand. Results showed that, only in low motivation condition, high trait-anxious individuals exhibited greater difficulty, relative to those low in trait anxiety, in maintaining working memory contents as the task demand increased. State anxiety showed no relation to working memory performance regardless of the level of motivation and task demands. Pupillary responses revealed that, in high motivational state, high trait-anxious individuals invested more effort than those low in trait anxiety when the task demand was low, F(1, 132) = 6.65, p = 0.0110, to moderate, F(1, 132) = 8.441, p = 0.00043. In accordance with ACT, these findings suggest that motivation can modulate the association between trait anxiety and cognitive performance along with the levels of task demand. Clinical implication is briefly discussed.

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Cognitive trait anxiety, stress and effort interact to predict inhibitory control

Cited by 31 publications

References 47 publications

Impacts of trait anxiety on visual working memory, as a function of task demand and situational stress

Impacts of trait anxiety on visual working memory, as a function of task demand and situational stress

Inhibitory attentional control in anxiety: Manipulating cognitive load in an antisaccade task

Modulatory Effect of Motivation on the Association of Trait Anxiety and Cognitive Performance: A Pupillometric Study

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