Previous studies on working memory processing characteristics of anxious people have focused more on effects of trait than state anxiety, especially the processing characteristics of working memory under emotional faces. Learning anxiety not only affects teenagers’ learning but also their life and overall personality development. This is the first study to examine adolescents with learning anxiety and explore effects of different negative emotional faces on working memory. Adolescents with learning anxiety (n = 30) and typically developing (n = 30) adolescents completed the emotional 2-back task with both facial emotion and gender as target stimulus. When facial emotion was the target stimulus, the two groups were asked to remember facial emotions (anger, sadness, and neutral). When facial gender was the target and facial emotion was the background stimulus, the two groups remembered the facial gender. Working memory performance in the learning anxiety group was worse than in the typically developing group. When facial emotion was the target stimulus, angry and sad faces significantly interfered with working memory performance in the learning anxiety group. When facial gender was the target stimulus and facial emotion was the background stimulus, the interference effect of negative emotion was greater and the accuracy was lower in the learning anxiety group. Therefore, different from the biased effect of trait anxiety on negative emotions, negative emotions (anger and sadness) interfere with the working memory of adolescents in the learning anxiety group. This interference exists regardless of whether negative emotions are the target or background. This result suggests recommendations for educational practices. That is, the interference from negative emotions on students should be avoided, especially those with learning anxiety.

以往关于焦虑人群工作记忆加工特性的研究，更多地关注特质的影响，而非状态焦虑，尤其是情绪面孔下工作记忆的加工特性。学习焦虑不仅会影响青少年的学习，还会影响他们的生活和整体人格发展。这是第一项检查有学习焦虑的青少年并探索不同负面情绪面孔对工作记忆的影响的研究。有学习焦虑的青少年 (n = 30) 和正常发育的青少年 (n = 30) 以面部情绪和性别为目标刺激完成了情绪 2-back 任务。当面部情绪是目标刺激时，两组被要求记住面部情绪（愤怒、悲伤和中性）。当以面部性别为目标，以面部情绪为背景刺激时，两组都记住了面部性别。学习焦虑组的工作记忆表现比典型发展组差。当面部情绪为目标刺激时，愤怒和悲伤的面部表情显着干扰学习焦虑组的工作记忆表现。当面部性别为目标刺激，面部情绪为背景刺激时，学习焦虑组负情绪的干扰作用更大，准确率更低。因此，与特质焦虑对消极情绪的偏向效应不同，消极情绪（愤怒和悲伤）会干扰学习焦虑组青少年的工作记忆。无论负面情绪是目标还是背景，这种干扰都存在。这一结果为教育实践提出了建议。也就是说，要避免负面情绪对学生的干扰，尤其是那些有学习焦虑的学生。