PROCESSING-EFFICIENCY THEORY AND THE WORKING-MEMORY SYSTEM - IMPAIRMENTS ASSOCIATED WITH SUBCLINICAL ANXIETY

The articulatory loop within the working-memory system has been implic ated in mediating the effects of anxiety on task performance. The stud y aimed to examine the effect of anxiety on both the articulatory loop and the central executive. Low (N=21), medium (N=26) and high (N=25) anxious individuals performed a high-processing load measure of sustai ned attention. Measurements of task accuracy and response time were re corded. In addition, basic measures of psychomotor performance were co mpleted. Whilst high levels of anxiety were associated with increased response times over the course of the task, there was a decline in per formance accuracy over the course of the task that did not vary as a f unction of anxiety. This increase in response times was not due to dif ferences in motor speed as psychomotor performance was uniform across groups. These results support the predictions of the Processing-Effici ency Theory. They also indicate possible roles for both the articulato ry loop and the central executive in the performance deficits associat ed with anxiety. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.