L'influenza di colpa e vergogna sulla memoria di lavoro. Un'indagine sperimentale

The relation between cognition and emotion has been increasingly explored in literature in the past decades. However, no studies have explored the relationship between social emotions and cognitive performances.In the first study 70 undergraduate male and female students were randomly assigned to one of these three conditions: direct activation of guilt, direct activation of shame, neutral condition. Before and after the activation conditions, a dual-task procedure was administered to the participants in order to evaluate cognitive processes related to working memory after emotions elicitation. In the second study, 111 participants were divided in two groups: one clinical group composed by people with eating disorder and one comparison group composed by undergraduate students. All participants were randomly assigned to one of these three conditions: indirect activation of guilt, indirect activation of shame, neutral condition. Also in this case, before and after the activation conditions, a dual-task procedure was administered to the participants in order to evaluate cognitive processes related to working memory. Findings show that shame and guilt are intrusive emotions that can interfere with working memory. Specifically, shame is more disrupting than guilt because it is characterized by more substantial deterioration of dual-task performances. Moreover, both studies show that guilt- and shame-proneness are significant predictors that can influence the relationship between shame, guilt and working memory. The present work offers a significant development in relation to the understanding of the negative self-conscious emotions and their relationship to cognitive processes.