Anxiety, Happiness, and Cognitive Load: A Research Report

This research report investigates the relationship between anxiety, happiness, and cognitive load using a masked repetition priming task. The study involved sixty-five university students who completed a meaning task, a cognitive load task, and surveys measuring anxiety (Spielberg State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) and happiness (Oxford Happiness Scale). The method section details the word stimuli and individual differences measures used, while the results section presents data on response times and accuracy rates across different conditions. The report analyzes how emotional valence and task condition affect reaction times, considering individual differences in anxiety and happiness. The findings aim to contribute to the understanding of cognitive processes and emotional influences, particularly in the context of learning disabilities.

Assignment 2: Major report
DETERMINATION OF THE RELATION BETWEEN ANXIETY AND
HAPPINESS BY THE USE OF COGNITIVE LOAD FUNCTION
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

Abstract
The study is going to discuss about the various cognitive development in an individual
that might affect the individual from the recognition of the pairs of the words and the
speaking related skills. The aim of the study is to determine the amount of words that can be
written and heard by the individual. This will help in the identification of the problems of the
students who are suffering from learning disabilities. This will help in the identification of
those problems as well as the methods that will help in addressing those problems. This
research proposal will include the various procedures like word stimuli and Individual
differences measures that will ultimately help the researchers to relate the emotions and word
type that are either being heard or said by the participants. Finally, this research proposal will
help in the analysis of the results that will show the most effective way for the determination
of the method that will improve cognitive activities of all the individuals especially those who
are suffering from learning disabilities.

Introduction
1. Topic statement
There are a number of stimuli that will help in the determination of the behaviour of the
individuals. These stimuli can be either in the conscious or in the unconscious state of an
individual.As per, Deutsch & Deutsch (1963) the selection of certain specific messages needs
the discrimination from the other messages that is shown by the behaviour of an individual.
This is due to the activity of an individual on the selective attention of an individual. The
authors show that the alertness or attentiveness as demonstrated by an individual might be
limited by a number of factors. For instance, if someone is continuously instructed on what to
say on a telephonic conversation then the person might not be able to concentrate effectively
on the conversation.
The level of awareness is also related to the perception of an individual. There are certain
research papers in which the authors describe the different approaches that show that the
perception of an individual without awareness. Research highlights that awareness is
regulated by the manipulation of the stimulus or by instructing observers to divide their
attention. The results of the research highlight that there are four basic methods that show that
the individuals perceive a stimuli only when they are not aware of that stimuli. Thus, there is
potential evidence for the topic statement of this research proposal which states that there are
a number of factors that can link awareness is linked to the perceived stimuli (Merikle,
Smilek, & Eastwood, 2001).
2. Establishing the method (masked semantic (repetition) priming) to be used to
study the topic
Priming is a process where there is exposure to one of the stimulus which influences the
response to the other stimulus. This can be done without the use of the conscious guidance or

the intention (Neelay&Kahan, 2001). For instance, NURSE is more quickly recognized in
comparison to the word DOCTOR. Priming can be of different types that includes sematic,
perceptual or conceptual.On the other hand, repetition priming are the improvement in the
behavioural response of an individual by the repeated use of the stimuli. The improvement in
the response of an individual is measured by the terms of accuracy or the time of reaction.
This usually occurs when the stimuli that are used repeatedly are either identical or even
similar to that of the previously used stimuli (Heyman et al., 2015). Keep in mind that the
researchers have used the masked semantic (repetition) priming where the primes were in
UPPER CASE and at the same time the targets are the exact words in the lower case for the
related conditions, or other words for the unassociated condition. Our primes were presented
below the threshold of conscious awareness. As per Bodner and Stalinsky (2008) the authors
uses a cognitive testing in order to test the automaticity of the masked priming effect and the
proportion of the masked repetition. The outcomes show that the priming is automatic and the
influence of the masked priming can be adjusted.
3. Building an argument for the experimental manipulations used in our study
As per, Merikle, Smilek, & Eastwood (2001) there are basic four methods that can be
used to demonstrate the perception of the individual without describing the awareness. Each
of these approaches reflects one of the two sort of the experimental logic. The experimental
logic is used to show the perception of the individual to that of the awareness. Perception is
referred to as the manner in which the sensory data is being organized and is consciously
experienced. It helps in the determination of the information that can be identified and can be
used in order to interact with the immediate environment.
There are a number of evidence which shows that the attention might influence the
manner in which individuals process the various stimuli. For instance, if there is continuous

disturbance in a room then the individuals who are communicating there might be affected
from that and that can result in the varied amount of attention. This is also affected by the
priming effect as well as the proportion of the priming effect. There are other researchers who
also use conscious priming in order to test the attentiveness of an individual (Heyman et al.,
2015).
4. Introducing the notion of individual differences
There are certain stimuli that might affect certain individuals at a greater rate in
comparison to others. This is due to the difference in the manner in which these stimuli is
perceived by that individual. As per Laricchiuta and Petrosini there are certain environmental
stimuli that is related to the brain function of that individual which controls the cognitive
functions, emotions and sensitivity. This is determined by the fact that the individuals have
different learning or response time to the external stimulus. There are certain individuals who
have the ability to control their emotions while others fail to do so. Thus, it is important to
understand the emotional response of an individual in order to know the psychological
wellbeing of that person (Holland, 2008).
5. Generating hypotheses
 As per Oliveira et al., (2013) it has been described that at the time of
processing the emotional stimuli there is a dependence on the attention of the
individual. This has been investigated by the help of the distracters in order to
divert the processing of the emotions. This is called the attentional load theory
which states that the burden of the major task determines the processing of the
emotions.

 Rigoni, Demanet & Sartori, (2015) there is a relation between the conscious
ability of an individual to act and the stimuli. As per the hypothesis every
positive or negative stimuli has an effect on the conscious intention.
 As per Högström et al., (2019) it is hypothesized that the different individuals
experience different level of emotions and that is processed as per their
cognitive abilities.
Method
Participants
Sixty-five students from a medium sized university in Melbourne participated in the
experiment. All claimed to be native speakers of English.
Materials
Word stimuli. There were sixty target words, half of which were positive and half of
which were negative. In addition to these target words there were thirty neutral words that
were used as unrelated primes. This created sixty prime target pairs for each valence, thirty of
which were related (repetition priming) and thirty were unrelated. The words in each group
were balanced on psycholinguistic characteristics including word frequency, letter length, and
association strength using the website of Landauer and Dumais. Repetition priming was used
such that each target word (in lower case) was primed by the same word in upper case
(related prime-target pair), or was paired with a prime word (in upper case) of neutral
emotional valence (unrelated prime-target pair). An example negative related repetition
prime-target pair was TORTURE-torture, and the corresponding unrelated prime-target pair
was JETTY-torture.
Individual differences measures. The state items from the Spielberg State-Trait
Anxiety Inventory (SSTAI; Spielberger et al., 1983) were used to provide a measure of

anxiety, which is a negatively valenced emotion. Items from the Oxford Happiness Scale
(OHS; Argyle et al., 1995) were used to provide a measure of happiness, which is a positive
valenced emotion.
Procedure
Participants reached the experiment via a link on the Learning Management System.
Participants were informed about the sequence of events in the task, and asked to respond as
quickly and as accurately as possible. For each of the three main sections of the experiment,
they completed 10 practice trials followed by 60 experimental trials. The first section of the
experiment asked participants to classify words presented on the screen as negative or
positive emotional valence (Meaning Task). The second task repeated the meaning task, but
this time in a dual task situation (Cognitive Load Task), where they were also asked to
remember a pattern containing four x's and 4 o's in various configurations. After every five
trials of the meaning task, they were asked to recall the current pattern, and then were asked
to remember a new pattern. Following this, they were presented with a list of questions that
they should answer based on their initial intuition without thinking too hard. The questions
were from the two surveys, with the questions from the SSTAI (Spielberger et al., 1983)
being presented first and the OHS second (Hills & Argyle, 2002). The experimental task and
the two short surveys took about 15 minutes to complete.
All of the participants performed the sequence of tasks in the same order without
counterbalancing, beginning with the Meaning Task, followed by the Cognitive Load Task
followed by the surveys. The instructions in the Meaning Task were designed to get
participants to make a judgement about the words based on them being either of negative
valence or positive valence. In the Cognitive Load Task, the participants were performing

two tasks simultaneously. At the end of each block of trials, the participant were given
performance feedback on latency to response and accuracy.
In terms of the stimulus presentation, the main stimuli always appeared in the centre
of the screen. The timing was as follows: (a) a forward letter mask appeared for 500 ms; (b)
the prime was then presented for 48 ms; (c) a backward mask appeared for 96 ms; and (e) the
target remained on the screen until the participant responded. In the Cognitive Load Task, the
pattern to be remembered appeared on the screen for 2500 ms, then five trials of the Meaning
Task occurred, and then the participant was asked to recall the pattern. The participant had 20
seconds to record their response, and were given feedback as to whether the entry was correct
before being shown another pattern to remember.
Results
Data were screened for response times that were less than 200 ms or greater than 1000
ms, and for incomplete data sets. The final data set contained data from 65 participants. To
confirm that participants were successfully completing the meaning judgement in both
conditions tasks, the percentage of correct responses was collated for all conditions, and
presented in Table 1.
Table 1
Mean and SDs of the percentage of correct responses across conditions
Meaning Cognitive Load
Mean SD Mean SD
Percent
correct 94.10 (5.19) 94.97 (4.31)

As can be seen from this table, the mean percent correct for all tasks was well above
90% and there were no obvious differences across the two tasks. The mean percent correct
for the pattern task was 82.11 (SD=15.63), confirming that participants were genuinely
attempting the second task in the cognitive load condition. Reaction times as a function of
emotional valence, task condition and prime relatedness are presented in Figure 1.
NEG MEAN POS MEAN NEG LOAD POS LOAD
550.00
570.00
590.00
610.00
630.00
650.00
670.00
690.00
710.00
730.00
750.00
REL UNREL
Mean Reaction Time (ms)
Figure 1. Mean reaction times and error rates for identical and unrelated prime
target pairs as a function of word valence and task condition. Note: REL=related,
UNREL=unrelated, POS=positive, NEG=negative, MEAN=meaning task,
LOAD=Cognitive load task. The error bars are +-1 SE.
As can be seen from Figure 1, reaction times were faster in the related compared to
the unrelated conditions. This difference in reaction times between related and unrelated
prime-target pairs is referred to as a priming effect. When comparing related trials between
the meaning and cognitive load conditions, reaction times appear generally faster for the load
conditions. However, for the unrelated trials, the reaction times appear slightly slower in the
load task. In terms of priming effects, it appears the largest priming effects observed were for
negative words in the cognitive load task, followed by positive words in the same task. The
priming effects for the meaning tasks appear smaller than priming effects in the load

condition, and appear relatively similar in size across valence. The same data from Figure 1
are presented to highlight priming effects for negatively and positively valenced words for
the different task conditions in Figure 2.
MEANING LOAD
0.00
20.00
40.00
60.00
80.00
100.00
120.00
140.00
NEGATIVE VALENCE POSITIVE VALENCE
Priming Effect (ms)
Figure 2. Mean priming effect as a function of word valence and task type. The
error bars are +-1 SE.
In order to determine whether the size of the priming effects differed between the
meaning and cognitive load task, a 2 (relatedness) by 2 (task) analysis of variance (ANOVA)
was conducted. This revealed a significant main effect of relatedness (F(1, 64)=115.30,
p<.001), suggesting a significant priming effect overall, and a significant interaction effect
between task and relatedness (F(1, 64)=48.03, p<.001), with priming effects being greater in
the cognitive load condition.
A further two separate 2 (relatedness) by 2 (valence) ANOVAs were conducted to
determine whether differences in priming effects were significant between words of a
positive and negative valence for both the meaning and cognitive load conditions. For the
meaning condition, the analysis revealed a significant main effect of relatedness (F(1,
64)=31.07, p<.001) and valence (F(1, 64)=19.27, p<.001), with RTs for negatively valenced

words being faster than for positively valenced words. However, there was no significant
interaction between relatedness and valence (F(1, 64)=.44, p=.51), suggesting that priming
effects for the meaning conditions were relatively similar across valence. For the cognitive
load condition, the analysis revealed significant main effects for both relatedness (F(1,
64)=94.34, p<.001) and valence (F(1, 64)=4.88, p=.03), again revealing RTs for negative
trials were faster overall compared to positive trials. In contrast to the meaning task, a
significant interaction between relatedness and valence was observed (F(1, 64)=22.06,
p<.001), confirming the size of the priming effect for negatively valenced words was greater
than that of positively valenced words within this cognitive load task condition.
To examine any potential correlations between priming effects and individual
difference variables, the anxiety (STAI) and happiness (OHS) scores were correlated with the
size of the priming effect across emotional valence and task condition. While there was an
expected negative correlation between anxiety and happiness, (r = -.82, p < .001), none of the
correlations of specific interest to the research hypotheses were significant.
Discussion
This research proposal identifies the various activities that can be related to the
cognitive development of the individuals. There are a number of factors that can help in the
improvement of the psychological wellbeing of the individuals.
The research proposal supports the data that is being said by the hypothesis. The
hypothesis that are used in the research supports the data that is being obtained from the
previous research. As per the previous literature theory there are certain changes that are
involved with the change that is seen in the priming effect of the individual which is a part of
the happiness and the cognitive function. The anxiety rate determines the rate of the
happiness among the individual. It is important that the individuals who are a part of the

determining factors that determine the psychological wellbeing of the individual. There are a
number of limitations in the research. The limitation includes the fact that the proper analysis
of the data was not done as that cannot be generalised. The strength of the paper is that all the
methods that are needed are mentioned in the data. The data that is being obtained from the
research shows that masking effect is needed in order to determine the cognitive load in an
individual.
As the research method used here is quantitative it might have missed to detect the
difference in the emotional load of different individuals which illustrates the limitation of this
report. Therefore, the future research should focus on determining the emotional load of an
individual with respect to the cognitive ability in order to determine the psychological well
being of an individual.
Thus, it is important that individuals respond to the words as perceived by them and
as observed by them to determine the cognitive load. It is also seen that there is a link
between the attentiveness and the happiness of an individual due to the varied emotional
response of the individuals.

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