How Emotions Influence Cognitive Control: A Within-Subject Investigation

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Affective Science

Background:

• Cognitive control is crucial for goal-directed behavior.
• Executive functions, including inhibition, updating, and shifting, are vital for cognitive control.
• The influence of negative emotions on these distinct executive functions requires further elucidation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the differential impact of negative emotions on inhibition, updating, and shifting.
• To explore the interrelationships between emotion-related effects on various cognitive control components.

Main Methods:

• Participants completed Go/No-Go, 2-back, and set-switching tasks under neutral and negative emotional conditions.
• Response times and accuracy were measured for each task.
• Correlational analyses examined the association between emotion-related effects across tasks.

Main Results:

• Negative emotions slowed false-positive responses in inhibition tasks, indicating increased interference.
• Accuracy decreased in working memory updating (2-back task) under negative emotions.
• Higher error rates were observed in the shifting task, suggesting impaired cognitive flexibility.
• Emotion-related effects were correlated between updating and shifting, but not inhibition.

Conclusions:

• Negative emotions do not uniformly affect all executive functions.
• Updating and shifting appear more susceptible to negative emotional interference than inhibition.
• These findings emphasize the complex interplay between emotion and cognition, impacting specific executive functions differently.