[The Influence of Emotional Coloring of Images on Visual Working Memory in Adults and Adolescents]

The influence of emotional valence (positive, negative and neutral) of realistic images on the visual working memory (WM) capacity was studied in adults (N = 40) and adolescents (N = 17). In adults, emotional coloring of stimuli increased the reaction time and decreased the accuracy of WM task performance. This effect was more pronounced for negative than for positive valence: the reaction time has its maximum value for negative emotional stimuli and minimum value for neutral ones with significant differences between all three valences; the accuracy was lower for negative stimuli than for both positive and neutral stimuli. Comparing with adults, adolescents aged 14-16 years showed the lower indices of the performance accuracy and rate during the retention of neutral and positive stimuli in WM. In this group, no significant influence of emotional valence of visual stimuli on the accuracy of WM task performance was found.