"The current project examined the relationship between worry, a component of anxiety characterized by negative, future-oriented thought activity, and working memory in women. Further elucidation of this relationship occurred through use of multiple working memory measures; examining the P300, an event-related potential measured using electroencephalogram (EEG) thought to index resources available for cognitive processing; and considering the role of ovarian hormones. It was hypothesized that worry would be associated with poorer working memory function and reduced amplitude of the P300 at higher levels of task difficulty and estradiol. Participants were 65 naturally-cycling women who attended four visits across their menstrual cycles. On each visit day, data collection included a measure of daily worry (Penn State Worry Questionnaire), a saliva sample used to assay for estradiol, and completion of three working memory tasks (N-back task with EEG recording, Operation Span task and Reading Span task). Five multilevel models were constructed to examine the impact of within-subject fluctuation of Penn State Worry Questionnaire scores and estradiol values on N-back task accuracy, N-back task reaction time, N-back task P300 amplitude, Operation Span score, and Reading Span score. Task parameters of the N-back task (i.e. load and trial type) were included in the three models of the N-back task as indicators of task difficulty. Results indicated that within-subject fluctuations were not significantly related to working memory performance or the P300 amplitude. Potential reasons for null findings are explored and future directions are considered."--Page ii.
Read
