When the going gets negative, recruit working memory
The research, published in the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology , is one of the first to look at the role of working memory in the context of depression and dispositional optimism. "There is a growing body of research supporting the role of working memory in emotional regulation. We know that those with clinical depression have difficulties in suppressing irrelevant negative information, while those with high working memory are able to ignore negative emotions. But we wanted to investigate whether you see a similar pattern in healthy adults across the lifespan," said Alloway, who conducted the study with UNF graduate student John Horton. The research duo tested over 2,000 nonclinical volunteers, between the ages of 16 and 79 years from a wide demographic range. They were asked questions, like 'I think about how sad I feel.' Participants also responded to questions about their dispositional optimism to find out whether they were typically more optimistic,...