Investigating the relationship between anxiety, attentional control, and working memory performance in typically developing older adolescents

Abstract

Cognitive differences are implicated in anxious symptomatology and working memory is positioned as a key explanatory mechanism within this interrelationship. Considerable debate regarding the scope and specificity of anxiety-related working memory difficulties highlights the need to extend well-established cognitive interference theories of anxiety. Older adolescents demonstrate heightened vulnerability for anxious psychopathology, yet little is known about the cognitive mechanisms that serve to introduce and sustain these symptoms. Across three large-scale survey studies and five empirical studies, this thesis investigated the nature and extent of the relationship between anxiety and working memory difficulties among typically developing older adolescents.

Survey studies were conducted at three key timepoints during the COVID-19 pandemic (Chapter 2). These studies identified stable, cross-validated patterns of association between anxiety and self-identified cognitive difficulties. A series of follow-up empirical studies, using a battery of carefully-matched tasks, examined the extent to which self-identified cognitive difficulties among anxious individuals were evident in behavioural indices of working memory impairment (Chapter 3). Results supported a strong positive association between anxiety and self-reported cognitive difficulties, but evidence for objective detriments in working memory performance was limited. Subsequent studies tested (Chapter 4) and refined (Chapter 5) a novel divided attention under load paradigm, which allowed for the manipulation of attentional control demands within standard working memory tasks. Findings demonstrated the utility of this novel paradigm and identified specific patterns of association between anxious arousal and heightened distractor susceptibility that were localised within particular pairings of task and attentional demands.

This thesis responds to acknowledged methodological limitations in the field and extends cognitive interference theories of anxiety by specifying particular anxiety-related difficulties in older adolescents that are related to anxiety profile, attentional control processes and working memory demands. Potential candidate mechanisms are presented and discussed with reference to both theoretical frameworks and future research.

Date of Award	5 Dec 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Sponsors	ESRC South West Doctoral Training Partnership, University of the West of England
Supervisor	Chris Jarrold (Supervisor) & Melissa Allen (Supervisor)