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Personality and Individual Differences 50 (2011) 955–960

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Personality and Individual Differences

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New perspectives in attentional control theory ⇑ Michael W. Eysenck a, , Nazanin Derakshan b a Department of Psychology, Roehampton University, Whitelands College, London SW15 4JD, UK b Birkbeck University of London, UK article info abstract

Article history: There have been several theoretical attempts to explain the effects of on cognitive performance. Received 20 April 2010 According to attentional control theory, anxiety impairs the efficiency of two (the Received in revised form 11 August 2010 inhibition and shifting functions). Another major theoretical assumption is that anxiety impairs perfor- Accepted 18 August 2010 mance effectiveness (the quality of performance) to a lesser extent than processing efficiency (the rela- Available online 12 October 2010 tionship between performance effectiveness and effort or use of processing resources). However, there may be conditions (e.g., prior presentation of threat-related stimuli) in which that assumption is not Keywords: applicable. The extensive recent research (including several cognitive neuroscience studies) of direct rel- Anxiety evance to the theory is discussed, and suggestions are made for maximizing the value of future cognitive Attentional control Distractibility neuroscience research. Finally, attentional control theory is developed to explicate the relationship Processing efficiency between anxiety and motivation. Implications for theoretical predictions and alternative theoretical Performance effectiveness accounts are discussed. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction The first major hypothesis forms an important part of process- ing efficiency theory (Eysenck & Calvo, 1992): anxiety impairs the This article is concerned with the effects of individual differ- efficiency of the central executive, which is an -like, lim- ences in anxiety on cognitive performance. The emphasis is mainly ited capacity component of the model put for- on anxiety as a personality dimension (i.e., trait anxiety or test anx- ward by Baddeley (1986). In contrast, it was assumed that there iety), but the effects of transient anxiety (i.e., state anxiety) are also are only modest effects of anxiety on the other two components considered. There is plentiful evidence that anxiety (whether of the original model: (1) the phonological loop (used to rehearse regarded as a personality dimension or as an emotional state) is verbal material and to store it briefly) and (2) the visuo-spatial associated with performance impairments on numerous tasks. A sketchpad (used to process and store transiently visual and spatial meta-analysis based on hundreds of studies revealed an overall information). correlation of À0.29 between test anxiety and academic aptitude Much evidence provides support for the first hypothesis in or achievement (Hembree, 1988). terms of the effects of anxiety on the central executive (see There have been numerous attempts to provide a theoretical Derakshan & Eysenck, 2009, for a review). However, there are very explanation for the adverse effects of anxiety on performance. few studies in which the effects of anxiety on all three components However, we will focus on one particular theoretical approach that of the working memory model have been compared directly in a has evolved over time. The original statement of the theory was by single experiment. One such study was carried out by Eysenck, Eysenck (1979). This was followed by processing efficiency theory Payne, and Derakshan (2005). Individuals high and low in trait (Eysenck & Calvo, 1992), and more recently by attentional control anxiety performed the Corsi Blocks Test concurrently with a sec- theory (Derakshan & Eysenck, 2009; Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & ondary task involving the central executive, the phonological loop, Calvo, 2007). It would be superfluous to describe in detail the or the visuo-spatial sketchpad. Performance on the Corsi Blocks development of the theory. Instead, we will consider only the ma- Test was impaired by high trait anxiety when the secondary task jor theoretical hypotheses incorporated within processing effi- involved use of the central executive but not when it involved ciency theory and attentional control theory (the additional use of the phonological loop or the visuo-spatial sketchpad. These hypotheses associated with attentional control theory are dis- findings suggested that high anxiety only impaired the functioning cussed at length in Eysenck et al.). of the central executive. Christopher and MacDonald (2005) used a different approach to the same issue. Their participants performed a series of tasks de-

⇑ Corresponding author. signed to assess different components of the working memory sys- E-mail address: [email protected] (M.W. Eysenck). tem. The findings closely resembled those of Eysenck et al. (2005):

0191-8869/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2010.08.019 956 M.W. Eysenck, N. Derakshan / Personality and Individual Differences 50 (2011) 955–960 high trait anxiety only impaired performance on those tasks a finding that has been replicated in more recent research (e.g., involving the central executive. Walkenhorst and Crowe (2010) Pacheco-Ungietti, Acosta, Callejas, & Lupianez, 2010; Pacheco- used the same general approach as Christopher and MacDonald. Ungietti, Lupianez, & Acosta, 2009). They also failed to find any significant effects of trait anxiety on It is important for research in this area to use conceptually sim- tasks involving the phonological loop or the visuo-spatial sketch- ple tasks that are as ‘process pure’ as possible so that the findings pad. However, in contrast to the findings of Christopher and Mac- obtained are interpretable. The antisaccade task was identified by Donald, they also reported non-significant effects of anxiety on Miyake et al. (2000) as such a task. On this task, a visual cue is pre- tasks involving the central executive. sented to the left or the right of the fixation point, and the instruc- The second and third major hypotheses are novel to attentional tions are to make an eye movement to the opposite side of the control theory but developed out of the assumption that anxiety visual cue as rapidly as possible. The latency of the first saccade impairs the functioning of the central executive. In short, there is to the correct side is one of the main dependent variables of inter- accumulating evidence that various executive functions are associ- est. There is also a control task (the pro-saccade task), in which the ated with the central executive. For example, Miyake et al. (2000) instructions are to fixate the cue when it appears. asked their participants to perform numerous executive tasks, and According to attentional control theory, adverse effects of anx- then performed latent-variable analysis to identify the main iety in terms of latency of the first correct saccade should be pres- underlying executive functions. They identified partially indepen- ent with the antisaccade task but not the pro-saccade task. dent inhibition, shifting, and updating functions. The inhibition Derakshan, Ansari, Hansard, Shoker, and Eysenck (2009) obtained function (subsequently clarified by Friedman and Miyake (2004)) the predicted pattern of findings in their first experiment in which prevents task-irrelevant stimuli and responses from disrupting the cue consisted of a neutral oval shape. In their second experi- performance. The shifting function is used to allocate attention in ment, Derakshan et al. used angry, happy, and neutral faces as a flexible and optimal way to the task stimulus or stimuli that cues. They obtained similar findings to their first experiment, with are currently most relevant. The updating function is used to up- the adverse effects of anxiety on the antisaccade task being great- date and monitor the information currently within working mem- est with angry cues. ory. This function is important for various short-term memory Two other recent studies have investigated the effects of tasks. anxiety on the antisaccade task using emotional cues. Garner, The second hypothesis is that anxiety impairs the functioning of Ainsworth, Gould, Gardner, and Baldwin (2009) used negative the inhibition function, and the third hypothesis is that anxiety im- and neutral picture cues. The high-anxious group made signifi- pairs the functioning of the shifting function. The overarching cantly more eye-movement errors than the low-anxious group assumption is that anxiety impairs attentional control whether on antisaccade trials regardless of cue type. Wieser, Pauli, and that control is negative (inhibition function) or positive (shifting Muhlberger (2009) used happy, fearful, sad, and neutral facial function). expressions as cues in their study. Individuals high in social anxi- The fourth major hypothesis is based on the distinction be- ety made more eye-movement errors than controls on antisaccade tween processing efficiency and performance effectiveness, and is trials for all facial expressions. incorporated in all versions of the theory from Eysenck (1979) on- Ansari and Derakshan (in press) successfully replicated the pre- wards. Performance effectiveness can be defined as the quality of vious findings of Derakshan et al. (2009) using neutral cues. They performance (e.g., the percentage of correct task responses). Pro- also used additional conditions to explain more fully why the la- cessing efficiency is defined by the relationship between perfor- tency of the first correct eye saccade is greater for high-anxious mance effectiveness and the use of resources or effort. More than for low-anxious individuals. They discovered that this effect specifically, processing efficiency is high when performance effec- is due predominantly to the negative effects of anxiety on inhibi- tiveness is high and use of resources is low and it is low when per- tory control rather than on volitional action generation. This formance effectiveness is low but use of resources is high. The strengthens the argument that performance on the antisaccade crucial hypothesis is that anxiety will typically impair processing task is relevant to attentional control theory. efficiency to a greater extent than performance effectiveness. We have discussed convincing evidence that anxiety is often Bishop (2009) agreed with the assumption that anxiety is asso- associated with increased susceptibility to distraction and thus im- ciated with a broad impairment of attentional control. However, paired efficiency of the inhibition function. As mentioned earlier, she offered an alternative explanation of the underlying processes. there are two contrasting theoretical accounts of this inefficiency According to her account, individuals high in trait anxiety often ex- when the inhibition function is required. According to attentional hibit an impoverished recruitment of attentional control mecha- control theory, the inefficiency of high-anxious individuals often nisms centered on the dorsolateral . This differs manifests itself in greater activation in brain areas associated with from the prediction stemming from attentional control theory, attentional control in distraction conditions. In contrast, Bishop namely, that high anxiety will often be associated with increased (2009) argued that the inefficiency of high-anxious individuals in activation of brain areas (e.g., dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) asso- distraction conditions is often due to a partial failure to engage ciated with attentional control. attentional control mechanisms (revealed by reduced activation We have already discussed Hypothesis 1. As a result, we will in brain regions associated with attentional control). focus in what follows on the remaining hypotheses. The evidence obtained by Bishop (2009) using functional mag- netic resonance imaging (fMRI) suggests that each approach is cor- Hypothesis 2. Anxiety impairs the inhibition function. rect under certain conditions. A horizontal string of six letters was presented on each trial with the target letter being presented six The inhibition function is used to resist interference from task- times in the string (low perceptual load) or once (high perceptual irrelevant stimuli and responses. There is considerable evidence load). The task was to decide which target letter (N or X) was pre- that anxiety impairs the functioning of the inhibition function sented. In addition, a task-irrelevant letter congruent or incongru- (see Derakshan & Eysenck, 2009, for a review). Most of the research ent with the target letter was presented slightly above or below the included in that review involved paradigms in which the condi- letter string. In the high perceptual load-condition, there was no tions varied in terms of the presence and/or nature of distracting difference in performance (target detection time) between the con- stimuli. The typical finding was that high-anxious individuals were gruent and incongruent distractor conditions for groups low or more susceptible to distraction than were low-anxious individuals, high in trait anxiety. However, only individuals high in trait M.W. Eysenck, N. Derakshan / Personality and Individual Differences 50 (2011) 955–960 957 anxiety had greater activation in the left dorsolateral prefrontal The greater EEG desynchronization associated with high trait anx- cortex (associated with attentional control) in the incongruent iety was almost exclusively limited to the time after the warning than the congruent condition. These findings are consistent with signal, a time during which participants were making use of the attentional control theory. Even though there were no effects of inhibition function. Thus, these findings support the hypothesis trait anxiety on performance with incongruent distractors, individ- that anxiety impairs the efficiency of the inhibition function. uals high in trait anxiety had additional activation in brain areas associated with attentional control. Hypothesis 3. Anxiety impairs the shifting function. The findings were very different with low perceptual load. In this condition, only the high-anxious group had significantly worse The effects of anxiety on the shifting function can be assessed performance with incongruent distractors than with congruent by tracking eye movements on tasks on which it is possible to ones. In addition, high-anxious participants tended to have re- specify how visual attention should shift over time. Wilson, Vine, duced activation in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with and Wood (2009) reported a study representing an approximation incongruent distractors than with congruent ones, whereas low- to this state of affairs. They found that high anxiety was associated anxious ones tended to have increased activation. Thus, the im- with impaired use of the shifting function and attentional control paired performance of high-anxious participants in the presence on a basketball shooting task as revealed by the pattern of eye of incongruent distractors is likely to be due to a failure to use movements. attentional control mechanisms when this was necessary for good The task-switching paradigm provides a relatively direct assess- task performance. ment of the shifting function (Miyake et al., 2000). The basic para- An important limitation with fMRI is that it has relatively poor digm involves two conditions in each of which participants temporal resolution. The inability to pinpoint precisely when in- perform the same two tasks (A and B). In the control condition, creased brain activation occurred complicates the task of working each block of trials is devoted to only one task. In the experimental out which cognitive processes are associated with changing levels condition, each block consists of a mixture of trials on task A and of brain activation. In contrast, event-related potentials (ERPs) pro- task B. The slowing and/or greater number of errors in the experi- vide excellent temporal resolution. Ansari and Derakshan mea- mental than in the control condition provides an assessment of the sured ERPs to the onset of the to-be-inhibited cue in an shifting function. antisaccade task (see above) in low- and high-anxious groups. Other tasks provide an approximate measure of the shifting Behavioral results replicated previous findings of longer antisac- function. These tasks include the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test cade latencies in high-anxious compared with low-anxious indi- (WCST) and the Comprehensive Trail Making Test (CTMT). Some viduals. Analysis of ERPs showed that longer antisaccade evidence based on these tasks supports the hypothesis. Orem, Pet- latencies in the high-anxious individuals were associated with rac, and Bedwell (2008) found that highly stressed (and so presum- lower fronto-parietal negativity in the period immediately prior ably anxious) individuals performed significantly more slowly than to the onset of the to-be-inhibited cue. Greater negativity prior less stressed and anxious individuals on Trial 5 of the CTMT, which to the initiation of correct antisaccades probably reflects a cortical involves set switching. Goodwin and Sher (1992) found that high- inhibition mechanism involving fronto-parietal control regions anxious individuals made more errors and took longer to complete (e.g., Everling, Matthews, & Flohr, 2001; Ford, Goltz, Brown, & Ever- the WCST than did low-anxious individuals. Caselli, Reiman, Hentz, ling, 2005). Osbourne, and Alexander (2004) found that anxious personality There are two more studies relevant to the issue of the effects of was associated with more errors on the WCST. anxiety on the efficiency of the inhibition function. Righi, Mecacci, Much recent research has involved use of various versions of the and Viggiano (2009) used event-related potentials (ERPs) in a task-switching paradigm. Derakshan, Smyth, and Eysenck (2009) study on the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART). On this used pairs of tasks (multiplication and division or addition and task, participants are presented with a series of digits. They are in- subtraction). There was a highly significant interaction between structed to respond to nearly every digit (Go trials) but to inhibit a anxiety and task-switching. In this interaction, the high-anxious response to the digit 3 (NoGo trials). There were no effects of trait participants were considerably slower in the task-switching condi- anxiety on performance on the SART. However, individuals high in tion than in the control condition, but there was no difference in trait anxiety had a larger N2 response than those low in trait anx- performance speed in the two conditions for low-anxious iety on NoGo trials but not on Go trials. This N2 response was participants. found in anterior sites and may well reflect inhibitory processes Ansari, Derakshan, and Richards (2008) made use of the mixed within frontal networks. Thus, high anxiety did not affect perfor- antisaccade and pro-saccade task. They compared performance in mance effectiveness but did impair processing efficiency when the standard condition (entire blocks involving only one task) the inhibition function was required. and in a task-switching condition (each block involved a mixture Savostyanov et al. (2009) used a measure of EEG desynchroniza- of pro-saccade and antisaccade trials). Ansari et al. replicated pre- tion with excellent temporal resolution. Participants decided as vious findings in which the latency of the first correct saccade on rapidly as possible the category to which each of a series of words the antisaccade task was faster in the task-switching than in the belonged (the Go condition). There was also a Stop condition control condition. However, they reported the additional finding involving the inhibition function in which a signal indicated that that this paradoxical improvement in the task-switching condition the participants should inhibit their response on that trial. was restricted to low-anxious participants. This finding suggests Savostyanov et al. (2009) did not find any effects of trait anxiety that high-anxious participants use the shifting function less effi- on performance effectiveness in the Go or Stop conditions. How- ciently than do low-anxious ones. ever, the high-anxious participants had considerably more EEG In a recent investigation using ERPs, Ansari and Derakshan desynchronization (indicative of processing effort and use of re- examined the shifting function in low- and high-anxious groups sources) than the low-anxious ones in both conditions. Thus, high in a mixed antisaccade task in which the color of a fixation cross anxiety was associated with impaired processing efficiency of the at trial onset instructed participants to make either an anti- or a type predicted by attentional control theory. Of greatest theoretical pro-saccade. The time between the offset of the fixation cross significance were the detailed findings in the Stop condition based and the to-be-inhibited cue was manipulated. This was the ‘antic- on EEG desynchronization in the time period before and after the ipatory period’ prior to the execution of the correct saccade. There warning signal indicating that the response should be inhibited. were short, medium, and long anticipatory periods. Behavioral 958 M.W. Eysenck, N. Derakshan / Personality and Individual Differences 50 (2011) 955–960

findings showed that high-anxious individuals incurred greater years has involved considering processing efficiency by using var- switch costs than low-anxious ones on trials with a short anticipa- ious techniques for assessing brain activity (e.g., fMRI; ERPs). Sev- tory period, but this group difference disappeared on trials with a eral studies based on that approach (Bishop, 2009; Righi et al., longer anticipatory period. Analysis of ERPs to the onset of the 2009; Santos et al., submitted for publication; Savostyanov et al., instructional cue showed that the switch cost in high-anxious indi- 2009) have shown that high anxiety can be associated with greater viduals was associated with lower frontal and fronto-central activ- brain activity than low anxiety even when there are no effects of ity compared with low-anxious ones. Most interestingly, however, anxiety on performance. Those studies are of particular theoretical analysis of the ERPs in the longer anticipatory period revealed that relevance because they involved tasks varying in their demands on high-anxious individuals had greater slow wave negativity (CNV: the inhibition or shifting function. There are other studies (to contingent negative variation) at frontal and fronto-central sites which we now turn) providing additional evidence that anxiety indicative of a greater allocation of compensatory resources to pro- is often associated with impaired processing efficiency. cesses in anticipation of the upcoming cue (cf., Rosler, Heil, & Ro- Fales et al. (2008) used the 3-back task on which participants der, 1997). CNV is examined as a neural marker of resource indicated whether a given word was the same as the one displayed allocation and cognitive effort (e.g., Jennings & van der Molen, three words back. There was a non-significant effect of anxiety on 2005). These findings indicate that anxiety impairs prefrontal con- performance. However, high-anxious participants had greater trol functions associated with the shifting function, but this transient activation in brain areas (e.g., dorsolateral and ventrolat- impairment is associated with greater compensatory effort to eral prefrontal cortex) associated with attentional control. These maintain performance quality. findings suggest that anxiety impaired processing efficiency but Johnson (2009) used a task-shifting paradigm in which one task not performance effectiveness. involved emotional processing based on facial expressions and the Telzer et al. (2008) studied attentional bias as a function of trait other task was neutral. Individuals high in trait anxiety took signif- anxiety. In the conditions of interest, two faces (one angry and one icantly longer than those low in trait anxiety to switch from the neutral) were presented. The faces were followed by a visual probe neutral to the emotional task, thus providing partial support for and participants indicated as rapidly as possible whether the probe the hypothesis. was on the left or the right. Of particular interest was brain activa- Kofman, Meiran, Greenberg, Balas, and Cohen (2006) used a tion on angry-incongruent trials (angry face and probe on different spatial task-switching task. There were two groups of participants: sides) and on angry-congruent trials (angry face and probe on the one group was more stressed and anxious than the other because same side). The increase in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation they were tested shortly before the start of an examination period. on incongruent trials compared to congruent ones was greater for The two groups were non-significantly different in terms of high-anxious than for low-anxious individuals. These findings sug- switching costs. gest that the high-anxious participants required greater use of the According to attentional control theory, high-anxious individu- inhibition function than low-anxious ones to disengage from the als typically exhibit inefficient use of the shifting function even processing of angry faces. when there are non-significant effects of anxiety on performance. Santos, Wall, and Eysenck (submitted for publication) considered 2. New theoretical and experimental directions the effects of anxiety on task-switching using three simple tasks in blocks of trials that involved high switching, low switching, or The most fundamental overarching assumption within process- no switching. There were no effects of anxiety on speed or accuracy ing efficiency theory and attentional control theory is that behav- or performance. However, fMRI findings indicated that the increase ioral evidence concerning performance effectiveness often in brain activation associated with switching was greater for high- provides very indirect evidence concerning internal processes. anxious than for low-anxious individuals, and that the brain areas There is plentiful evidence to support that assumption. For exam- involved (principally BA9/46) corresponded to those associated ple, in several studies there were no effects of anxiety on perfor- with task-switching (Wager, Jonides, & Reading, 2004). Thus, anx- mance, but significant effects of anxiety on neuroimaging or EEG iety impaired the efficiency of the shifting function even though measures suggested that anxiety was affecting various cognitive performance was not significantly affected. processes. In sum, the evidence predominantly supports the hypothesis. There are negative effects of high anxiety with regard to use of the shifting function. In studies in which there is only behavioral 2.1. Cognitive neuroscience evidence, these negative effects are often observed with respect to performance effectiveness. When measures of effectiveness In principle, cognitive neuroscience research provides an extre- and efficiency are both available, high anxiety typically has a great- mely useful way of comparing processing efficiency in high-anx- er adverse effect on efficiency than on effectiveness. ious and low-anxious individuals. However, various requirements There is an important caveat with respect to most of the find- need to be satisfied for such research to be maximally informative ings. The task-switching paradigm probably provides the most di- with respect to attentional control theory. First, it is important to rect way of assessing the effects of anxiety on the shifting function. compare brain activity in two or more conditions differing primar- However, even findings from this paradigm are typically difficult to ily in terms of the involvement of the inhibition function or the interpret unequivocally. The reason for this is that several factors shifting function. More specifically, the baseline condition should jointly determine the costs associated with task-switching (see be one in which there is little or no use of a given executive func- Monsell, 2003, for a review). tion and the other condition one necessitating use of that function. Second, the brain areas that differ between high-anxious and Hypothesis 4. Anxiety impairs processing efficiency more than low-anxious groups should be predicted a priori on the basis of the- performance effectiveness. oretical considerations. Sufficient is known of the main brain areas associated with specific executive functions for that to be feasible, Numerous behavioral studies provide indirect support for the although it is important not to exaggerate the amount of functional hypothesis that anxiety impairs processing efficiency more than specialization within the brain. performance effectiveness (see Eysenck et al., 2007, for a review). Third, the techniques used should have good spatial and tempo- An important alternative approach used increasingly in recent ral resolution. The reason for this is to ensure that the differences M.W. Eysenck, N. Derakshan / Personality and Individual Differences 50 (2011) 955–960 959 in processing between high-anxious and low-anxious individuals Indirect support for the above two-stage process was reported can be identified as precisely as possible. For example, suppose by Hayes, MacLeod, and Hammond (2009). They used a category that high-anxious individuals performing a given task show a task under low and high motivational conditions. High greater increase in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation as- trait anxiety had a negative effect on performance in the low-moti- sessed by fMRI compared to a baseline condition than low-anxious vation condition, but this was eliminated in the high-motivation ones. This might reflect greater use of attentional control mecha- condition. These findings suggest that the increase in effort be- nisms by high-anxious individuals. However, the relatively poor tween the low- and high-motivation conditions was greater for temporal resolution of fMRI means it is not possible to identify pre- the high-anxious participants. cisely the stage of task processing associated with the difference in In sum, there are two possible effects of anxiety on attentional dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation. control. Anxiety can be associated with deficient recruitment of Fourth, it is often implicitly assumed that high-anxious and attentional control resources or it can be associated with substan- low-anxious individuals use the same cognitive processes when tial (but inefficient) recruitment of such resources. The former is performing any given task. On that assumption, differences be- more likely in conditions involving low motivation (e.g., unde- tween high-anxious and low-anxious individuals in brain activa- manding task; lack of task goals), whereas the latter is more likely tion reflect purely quantitative differences in the involvement of in conditions involving high motivation (e.g., demanding task; a given cognitive process. However, it is probable that there are clear task goals). It is a matter for future research to elucidate more qualitative differences in the cognitive strategies used by high- clearly the circumstances in which each effect is obtained. anxious and low-anxious individuals on many tasks (e.g., Tohill & Holyoak, 2000). As a consequence, it is important to use tasks on References which nearly all participants use the same cognitive strategy. If that is not the case, it becomes extremely difficult to interpret Ansari, T. L., & Derakshan, N. (in press). Anxiety impairs inhibitory control but not group differences in patterns of brain activation. volitional action control. & Emotion. Ansari, T. L., Derakshan, N., & Richards, A. (2008). Effects of anxiety on task switching: Evidence from the mixed saccade task. Cognitive Affective & 2.2. Processing efficiency: role of motivation Behavioral Neuroscience, 8, 229–238. Baddeley, A. D. (1986). Working memory. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 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