¿La valencia emocional modifica la eficiencia de la atención y la memoria de trabajo con la edad?: Una revisión descriptiva

Abstract

Ageing is accompanied for various functional, anatomical, and behavioural changes in cognitive functions such as attention and working memory. However, it appears that the emotional valence of stimuli influences information processing. These review aims to present the hypothesis that attentional mechanisms of amplification of relevant information and suppression of irrelevant information have an impact on working memory efficiency; and to propose that these mechanisms might be vulnerable to the effect of the emotional valence of stimuli. In this review, different models of attention will be presented to understand the concept of information filtering for emotional competence tasks. We will also discuss the effect of neutral and emotionally valence distractors on working memory efficiency, contrasting the existing evidence between young vs. older adults. Finally, attentional mechanisms and their impact on working memory are hypothesised. To the best of our knowledge, it is unknown how these attentional mechanisms change throughout adulthood, how emotional valence impacts these mechanisms and, potentially, working memory efficiency.

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