Abstract
According to the attentional control theory of anxiety (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007), anxiety impairs performance on cognitive tasks that involve the shifting function of working memory. This hypothesis was tested using a mixed antisaccade paradigm, in which participants performed single-task and mixed-task versions of the paradigm. The single task involved the completion of separate blocks of anti- and prosaccade trials, whereas in the mixed task, participants completed anti- and prosaccade trials in a random order within blocks. Analysis of switch costs showed that high-anxious individuals did not exhibit the commonly reported paradoxical improvement in saccade latency, whereas low-anxious individuals did. The findings are discussed within the framework of attentional control theory.
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The present work was supported by an ESRC Ph.D. studentship awarded to T.L.A. and was carried out under the supervision of N.D.
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Ansari, T.L., Derakshan, N. & Richards, A. Effects of anxiety on task switching: Evidence from the mixed antisaccade task. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience 8, 229–238 (2008). https://doi.org/10.3758/CABN.8.3.229
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/CABN.8.3.229
Keywords
- Switch Cost
- Attentional Control
- Switch Trial
- Antisaccade Task
- Prosaccade Task