Attentional control and trait anxiety: Does working memory moderate performance in the antisaccade task?

Abstract

According to attentional control theory, high anxious individuals experience reduced attentional control as compared to low anxious individuals due to the imbalance between goal-directed and stimulus-driven attentional systems (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007). As such, high trait anxious individuals have difficulty resisting distraction, as compared to low trait anxious individuals. Relatedly, research on individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) holds that those with a high WMC have better attentional control than individuals with a low WMC, and thus are better able to resist distraction (Unsworth, Schrock, & Engle, 2004). The present study examined the hypothesis that high WMC compensates for high trait anxiety in terms of performance on the ability to resist distraction, as measured by the antisaccade task. Participants completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory to measure trait anxiety, and the Operation Span and Reading Span tasks to measure WMC. As predicted, trait anxiety and WMC interacted to affect performance on the antisaccade task; individuals who were high trait anxious nonetheless yielded more attentional control on the antisaccade task when they had a high WMC. Some theoretical implications of these results are discussed.