Table_1_Beginning of the Pandemic: COVID-19-Elicited Anxiety as a Predictor of Working Memory Performance.DOCX

Increasing evidence indicates that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is associated with adverse psychological effects, including heightened levels of anxiety. This study examined whether COVID-19-related anxiety levels during the early stage of the pandemic predicted demanding working memory (WM) updating performance. Altogether, 201 healthy adults (age range, 18–50) mostly from North America and the British Isles were recruited to this study via the crowdsourcing site www.prolific.co. The results showed that higher levels of COVID-19-related anxiety during the first weeks of the pandemic outbreak were associated with poorer WM performance as measured by the n-back paradigm. Critically, the unique role of COVID-19-related anxiety on WM could not be explained by demographic factors, or other psychological factors such as state and trait anxiety or fluid intelligence. Moreover, across three assessment points spanning 5–6 weeks, COVID-19-related anxiety levels tended to decrease over time. This pattern of results may reflect an initial psychological “shock wave” of the pandemic, the cognitive effects of which may linger for some time, albeit the initial anxiety associated with the pandemic would change with habituation and increasing information. Our results contribute to the understanding of cognitive–affective reactions to a major disaster.

日益增多的证据表明，2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行与不良的心理效应有关，其中包括焦虑水平的显著升高。本研究旨在探讨COVID-19相关焦虑水平在疫情早期是否预测了对工作记忆（WM）更新性能的挑战性。总计201名健康的成年人（年龄范围，18-50岁）主要通过众包网站www.prolific.co被招募至本研究中，其中大多数来自北美和英伦三岛。研究结果揭示了，在大流行爆发初期的前几周内，与COVID-19相关的焦虑水平较高，这与通过n-back范式测量的WM性能较差相关。至关重要的是，COVID-19相关焦虑对WM的独特作用不能由人口统计学因素或其他心理因素如状态焦虑、特质焦虑或流体智力来解释。此外，在跨越5-6周的三个评估点中，与COVID-19相关的焦虑水平随着时间的推移而逐渐降低。这种结果模式可能反映了大流行初期心理上的“冲击波”，其认知效应可能持续一段时间，尽管与疫情相关的初始焦虑会随着习惯的形成和信息量的增加而改变。我们的研究结果有助于加深对重大灾难引发的认知-情感反应的理解。