ABSTRACT

Deficits in cognitive flexibility have been associated with anxiety and worry, however few studies have assessed cognitive flexibility in the context of emotional stimuli (i.e. affective flexibility). The present study (n = 79) investigated whether individual differences in affective flexibility predict levels of trait anxiety and worry over a period of seven weeks. Affective flexibility was measured using a task-switching paradigm. Results showed that less efficient shifting of attention towards affective aspects of positive stimuli predicted higher anxiety over time. Additionally, more efficient shifting of attention away from affective towards non-affective aspects of negative stimuli predicted higher anxiety and worry over time. This latter finding may be understood by considering theoretical models and empirical evidence associating avoidance of negative information with increased anxiety. The effects were small and require replication in larger, representative samples, but they are an initial indication that anxiety may not be associated with general impairments in cognitive flexibility. Instead, our study emphasises the importance of breaking down cognitive flexibility into different components to investigate more nuanced relationships.

摘要

认知灵活性的缺陷与焦虑和担忧有关，但很少有研究评估情绪刺激背景下的认知灵活性（即情感灵活性）。本研究 ( n = 79）调查了情感灵活性的个体差异是否可以预测七周内特质焦虑和担忧的水平。使用任务切换范式测量情感灵活性。结果表明，随着时间的推移，将注意力转移到积极刺激的情感方面的效率较低，预示着更高的焦虑。此外，更有效地将注意力从负面刺激的情感方面转移到非情感方面，预示着随着时间的推移会出现更高的焦虑和担忧。后一个发现可以通过考虑将避免负面信息与焦虑增加相关联的理论模型和经验证据来理解。影响很小，需要在更大的代表性样本中进行复制，但它们是焦虑可能与认知灵活性的一般损伤无关的初步迹象。相反，我们的研究强调将认知灵活性分解为不同组成部分以研究更细微的关系的重要性。