Anxiety and Attentional Control in Adolescents: Using a Novel Brown-Peterson Paradigm to Identify the Locus of Anxiety-Related Working Memory Difficulties

Working memory has become a key mechanism in accounting for the general attentional and cognitive control difficulties observed in anxious individuals. Mixed empirical findings regarding the nature and extent of these difficulties suggest the need for more nuanced accounts of the anxiety-working memory relationship. This study investigates working memory performance in older adolescents under conditions of varying attentional demand. The relationship between attentional demand, working memory load and levels of anxiety will be assessed with regards to individuals’ susceptibility to distraction and any resulting impairments in working memory performance. At least 100 individuals will be assessed. Participants will complete a Brown-Peterson task in which a pre-load of words is followed by a period of distraction, and then a test of recall accuracy. A novel manipulation varies the attentional demands of the task at either storage or distraction. Self-report attentional control difficulties and state and trait anxiety will also be assessed.