Freeze or forget? Virtual attack effects in an Emotional Sternberg Task
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Gladwin, Thomas Edward
Vink, Matthijs
Abstract / Description
Emotionally salient stimuli have the ability to disrupt cognitive processing. This kind of disruption involves effects on working memory and may be related to mental health problems. To explore the nature of such emotional interference on working memory, a Virtual Attack Emotional Sternberg Task (VAEST) was used. Neutral faces were presented as distractors and warning signals, which were sometimes followed by a virtual attack, created by having the neutral face turn angry while the image was enlarged. The attack was hypothesized to have one of two effects: to disrupt cognitive processing and thereby increase interference effects, or to terminate a state of freezing and thereby reduce interference effects. The task was successfully completed online by a sample of 59 students. Results clearly show that the virtual attack caused a reduction of interference relative to no-attack trials. The apparent cognitive disruption caused by emotional distractors may thus reflect freezing, which can be reversed by a freeze-terminating stimulus.
Keyword(s)
Emotional Sternberg freezing virtual attack faces interferencePersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2018-06-19
Journal title
Europe's Journal of Psychology
Volume
14
Issue
2
Page numbers
342–358
Publisher
PsychOpen GOLD
Publication status
publishedVersion
Review status
peerReviewed
Is version of
Citation
Gladwin, T. E., & Vink, M. (2018). Freeze or forget? Virtual attack effects in an Emotional Sternberg Task. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 14(2), 342–358. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v14i2.1473
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Gladwin, Thomas Edward
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Vink, Matthijs
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2018-11-21T10:00:21Z
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Made available on2018-11-21T10:00:21Z
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Date of first publication2018-06-19
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Abstract / DescriptionEmotionally salient stimuli have the ability to disrupt cognitive processing. This kind of disruption involves effects on working memory and may be related to mental health problems. To explore the nature of such emotional interference on working memory, a Virtual Attack Emotional Sternberg Task (VAEST) was used. Neutral faces were presented as distractors and warning signals, which were sometimes followed by a virtual attack, created by having the neutral face turn angry while the image was enlarged. The attack was hypothesized to have one of two effects: to disrupt cognitive processing and thereby increase interference effects, or to terminate a state of freezing and thereby reduce interference effects. The task was successfully completed online by a sample of 59 students. Results clearly show that the virtual attack caused a reduction of interference relative to no-attack trials. The apparent cognitive disruption caused by emotional distractors may thus reflect freezing, which can be reversed by a freeze-terminating stimulus.en_US
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Publication statuspublishedVersion
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Review statuspeerReviewed
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CitationGladwin, T. E., & Vink, M. (2018). Freeze or forget? Virtual attack effects in an Emotional Sternberg Task. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 14(2), 342–358. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v14i2.1473
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ISSN1841-0413
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/1105
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.1297
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Language of contenteng
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PublisherPsychOpen GOLD
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v14i2.1473
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Keyword(s)Emotional Sternbergen_US
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Keyword(s)freezingen_US
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Keyword(s)virtual attacken_US
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Keyword(s)facesen_US
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Keyword(s)interferenceen_US
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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TitleFreeze or forget? Virtual attack effects in an Emotional Sternberg Tasken_US
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DRO typearticle
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Issue2
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Journal titleEurope's Journal of Psychology
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Page numbers342–358
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Volume14
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Visible tag(s)Version of Record