HL CA

• Emotion

  Feeling or sensation
• Cognition

  Mental process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses
• Technology can have positive effects on

  Emotion and cognition
• Technology can cause increases in anxiety

  Which then has negative effects on cognition, especially in young people
• Technology like VRET (Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy)

  Could be used to treat anxiety and thus improve cognition
• Link between emotion and cognition

  Emotion and cognition are closely related, with emotion influencing cognitive processes like working memory
• People with anxiety issues often have reduced working memory capacity and other cognitive problems
• People with PTSD

  • Suffer from memory loss, poor executive function and working memory capacity
• People with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

  • Tend to have working memory problems
• Even in healthy people, stress and anxiety can reduce working memory capacity
• Anxiety and working memory performance under threat of shock (Vytal et al., 2013)

  • Participants had worse working memory when under threat of shock compared to when they felt safe
  • As the task got harder, participants actually did better in the threat condition
• One possible explanation for the link between anxiety and working memory is that they are both using similar cognitive processes - if we are anxious, it is usually because we are thinking of something that's causing the anxiety, so this reduces our ability to concentrate on whatever else we are supposed to be doing
• Negative Effects


  • Rates of anxiety disorders in developed countries are rising, especially in teenagers and young adults
  • This could be because of our increased access to technology and the rise in popularity of smartphones
  • Internet addiction has been commonly linked with anxiety and depression
  • This could have a negative effect on our cognition, including working memory
• Positive Effects


  • Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) can be used in a positive way to reduce anxiety for people, including those who suffer from PTSD and phobias
  • VRET works by exposing people to the things that cause them anxiety in a safe environment
  • This can reduce anxiety and help improve working memory and executive functions
• Weinstein et al. (2015) found a significant correlation between internet addiction and social anxiety, which was slightly stronger in males
• Parsons and Rizzo (2008) found a significant effect in using VRET to treat a range of anxiety-related disorders, including PTSD and phobias
• LeDoux et al. (2004) found that VRET helped to increase the vmPFC function and reduce amygdala activation when exposed to emotional images
• The vmPFC has been associated with working memory, executive functions and other cognitive processes, so VRET could help cognition in this way
• Weinstein et al.'s study is correlational


  We must be careful when drawing conclusions from this study
• There are other factors that could affect the relationship between social media and anxiety
• At the time of writing, there was no study found that investigated the direct link between VRET and improving working memory
• The reason for this apparent lack of research on the relationship between VRET and working memory is unknown