Stimuli-Dependent and State-Dependent Effects of Emotion on Children’s Executive Functions and Intentional Forgetting: Associations With Age and Socio-Emotional Adjustment

Studies on adults have revealed a disadvantageous effect of negative emotional stimulion executive functions (EF), and it is suggested that this effect is amplified in children. Thepresent study’s aim was to assess how emotional facial expressions affected working memoryacross age, using a working memory task with emotional facial expressions as stimuli.Additionally, we explored how degree of internalizing and externalizing symptoms intypically developing children were related to performance on the same task. However, before employing the working memory task with emotional facial expressions as stimuli, anindependent sample of 9-12-year-olds was asked to recognize the facial expressions intendedto serve as stimuli on the working memory task, and to rate the facial expressions on intensityand arousal to obtain a base line for how children during this age recognize and react to facialexpressions. The first study revealed that children rated the facial expressions with similarintensity and arousal across age. When employing the working memory task with facial expressions, results revealed that negatively valenced expressions impaired working memorymore than neutral and positively valenced expressions. The ability to successfully completethe working memory task increased between 9-12 years of age. Children’s internalizingsymptoms and total problems were associated with poorer performance on the workingmemory task with facial expressions. Results on the effect of emotion on working memory arediscussed in light of recent models on how emotional information might interact and interfere with cognitive processes such as working memory.