The Effects of Emotional Influences on Cognitive Processing

Although cognition and emotion are well researched topics, it is currently unclear how these two states influence each other. Here, we begin to untangle this complex relationship by assessing cognitive functioning while we simultaneously manipulate emotional state through the use of emotionally negative or neutral pictures. We hypothesize that the negative pictures will increase the demand on emotional resources, and as a consequence, limit cognitive processing. The electroencephalographic (EEG) event related brain potential (ERP) P3 component is used as the primary index of the influenceofemotionalprocessingoncognitivefunctioning. Theresultsofthisstudywill help to clarify the extent to which the level of cognitive performance is influenced by related emotional processing