The role of goals and affect in working memory functioning

The study investigated the direct and mediated effects of mastery and perfo rmance goals, negative affect, and task-irrelevant thoughts on working memo ry in a sample of undergraduates (N = 177). Results indicated that negative affect mediated the positive relation between mastery goals and working me mory; students with mastery goals reported decreased negative affect, which in turn was related to enhanced working-memory functioning. In contrast, p erformance goals had a negative indirect relation to working memory by incr easing negative affect. After controlling for negative affect, there was al so a positive relation between performance goals and working memory for mal es, but not for females. Finally, task-irrelevant thoughts were not a signi ficant predictor of working memory when negative affect was in the model, a nd were subsequently removed from the model. implications for the relation between achievement goals, working memory, and cognitive outcomes are discu ssed.