title: Retro-Active Emotion: Do Negative Emotional Stimuli Disrupt Consolidation in Working Memory?
abstract: While many studies have shown that a task-irrelevant emotionally arousing stimulus can interfere with the processing of a shortly following target, it remains unclear whether an emotional stimulus can also retro-actively interrupt the ongoing processing of an earlier target. In two experiments, we examined whether the presentation of a negative emotionally arousing picture can disrupt working memory consolidation of a preceding visual target. In both experiments, the effects of negative emotional pictures were compared with the effects of neutral pictures. In Experiment 1, the pictures were entirely task-irrelevant whereas in Experiment 2 the pictures were associated with a 2-alternative forced choice task that required participants to respond to the color of a frame surrounding the pictures. The results showed that the appearance of the pictures did not interfere with target consolidation when the pictures were task-irrelevant, whereas such interference was observed when the pictures were associated with a 2-AFC task. Most importantly, however, the results showed no effects of whether the picture had neutral or emotional content. Implications for further research are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Experimental Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Güven
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kandemir
authors.affiliation: Experimental Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Elkan G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Akyürek
authors.affiliation: Experimental Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Mark R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Nieuwenstein
mesh_terms: D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000069077:Memory Consolidation / Q000502:physiology*; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D055815:Young Adult