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Abstract
Using a large sample and the confirmatory factor analysis, the study investigated the relationships between anxiety, working memory (WM) and (fluid) intelligence. The study showed that the negative impact of anxiety on WM functioning diminishes with increasing intelligence, and that anxiety can significantly affect WM only in people below average intelligence. This effect could not be fully explained by the sheer differences in WM capacity (WMC), suggesting the importance of higher-level cognition in coping with anxiety. Although intelligence moderated the impact of anxiety on WM, it was only weakly related to anxiety. In contrast to previous studies, anxiety explained the substantial amount of WMC variance (17.8%) in less intelligent participants, but none of the variance in more intelligent ones. These results can be explained in terms of either increased motivation of intelligent but anxious people to cope with a WM task, or their ability to compensate decrements in WM.
The author is grateful to A. Anzulewicz, K. Cipora, D. Czajak, M. Ferdek and M. Taraday for conducting the study. Polish adaptation of the STAI questionnaire has originally been developed by J. Strelau, T. Tysarczyk and K. Wrześniewski.
This study was supported by the National Science Centre of Poland [grant number 2011/01/D/HS6/00467]. The funding source had no impact on the design of the study.
The author is grateful to A. Anzulewicz, K. Cipora, D. Czajak, M. Ferdek and M. Taraday for conducting the study. Polish adaptation of the STAI questionnaire has originally been developed by J. Strelau, T. Tysarczyk and K. Wrześniewski.
This study was supported by the National Science Centre of Poland [grant number 2011/01/D/HS6/00467]. The funding source had no impact on the design of the study.