The role of working memory in decoding emotions.
Decoding facial expressions of emotion is an important aspect of social communication that is often impaired following psychiatric or neurological illness. However, little is known of the cognitive components involved in perceiving emotional expressions. Three dual task studies explored the role of verbal working memory in decoding emotions. Concurrent working memory load substantially interfered with choosing which emotional label described a facial expression (Experiment 1). A key factor in the magnitude of interference was the number of emotion labels from which to choose (Experiment 2). In contrast the ability to decide that two faces represented the same emotion in a discrimination task was relatively unaffected by concurrent working memory load (Experiment 3). Different methods of assessing emotion perception make substantially different demands on working memory. Implications for clinical disorders which affect both working memory and emotion perception are considered.
Phillips
Louise H
LH
School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen Scotland, UK. louise.phillips@abdn.ac.uk
Channon
Shelley
S
Tunstall
Mary
M
Hedenstrom
Anna
A
Lyons
Kathryn
K
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003657:Decision Making; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D008875:Middle Aged; D012660:Semantics; D012691:Serial Learning; D013067:Speech Perception