Olszanowski, M. 1 , Balas, R. 1, 2 & Klyszejko, Z. 3, 1
1 Warsaw School of Social Sciences & Humanities
2 Polish Academy of Science, Institute of Psychology
3 Information Processing Center, Visual Cognition Research Department
Presented studies examine the effect of emotional content on short-term memory (STM) storage. Our basic assumptions were made according to Cowan model of working memory - WM (2001), as we hypothesized that emotional stimuli would have higher activation which should result with better and longer availability for the central executive system. Additionally we expected that emotional content (especially negative or dangerous) can possibly focus the attentional resources (as predicted by “emotion drive attention” hypothesis - Ohman, Flykt, Esteves, 2001), which may lead do poorer accessibility of other/neutral content stored in STM. To test this we asked participants to perform a set of modified Sternberg tasks (1966) using faces or pictures as stimuli. Across the experimental trials we manipulated the type of stimuli (facial display or picture emotionality), that appeared within the short lists of stimuli (faces or pictures) presented one after another. The data support general conclusion that emotional (especially threatening) stimuli have increased short term accessibility that also impair other stimuli storage and memory activation (lower recognition of items appearing next in the row). This results stands along with other data and support general observation about attention-grabbing power of negative stimuli and automatic vigilance for threat.