Experiential and Strategic Emotional Intelligence Are Implicated When Inhibiting Affective and Non-Affective Distractors: Findings from Three Emotional Flanker N-Back Tasks
Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to a set of competencies to process, understand, and reason with affective information. Recent studies suggest ability measures of experiential and strategic EI differentially predict performance on non-emotional and emotionally laden tasks. To explore cognitive pr...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-03-01
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| Series: | Journal of Intelligence |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-3200/9/1/12 |
| _version_ | 1797416447850315776 |
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| author | Ming D. Lim Damian P. Birney |
| author_facet | Ming D. Lim Damian P. Birney |
| author_sort | Ming D. Lim |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to a set of competencies to process, understand, and reason with affective information. Recent studies suggest ability measures of experiential and strategic EI differentially predict performance on non-emotional and emotionally laden tasks. To explore cognitive processes underlying these abilities further, we varied the affective context of a traditional letter-based <i>n</i>-back working-memory task. In study 1, participants completed 0-, 2-, and 3-back tasks with flanking distractors that were either emotional (fearful or happy faces) or non-emotional (shapes or letters stimuli). Strategic EI, but not experiential EI, significantly influenced participants’ accuracy across all <i>n</i>-back levels, irrespective of flanker type. In Study 2, participants completed 1-, 2-, and 3-back levels. Experiential EI was positively associated with response times for emotional flankers at the 1-back level but not other levels or flanker types, suggesting those higher in experiential EI reacted slower on low-load trials with affective context. In Study 3, flankers were asynchronously presented either 300 ms or 1000 ms before probes. Results mirrored Study 1 for accuracy rates and Study 2 for response times. Our findings (a) provide experimental evidence for the distinctness of experiential and strategic EI and (b) suggest that each are related to different aspects of cognitive processes underlying working memory. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:03:26Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8147cd5d519e4a1da4838d387985a8c8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2079-3200 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:03:26Z |
| publishDate | 2021-03-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Intelligence |
| spelling | doaj.art-8147cd5d519e4a1da4838d387985a8c82023-12-03T12:06:32ZengMDPI AGJournal of Intelligence2079-32002021-03-01911210.3390/jintelligence9010012Experiential and Strategic Emotional Intelligence Are Implicated When Inhibiting Affective and Non-Affective Distractors: Findings from Three Emotional Flanker N-Back TasksMing D. Lim0Damian P. Birney1School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, AustraliaSchool of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, AustraliaEmotional intelligence (EI) refers to a set of competencies to process, understand, and reason with affective information. Recent studies suggest ability measures of experiential and strategic EI differentially predict performance on non-emotional and emotionally laden tasks. To explore cognitive processes underlying these abilities further, we varied the affective context of a traditional letter-based <i>n</i>-back working-memory task. In study 1, participants completed 0-, 2-, and 3-back tasks with flanking distractors that were either emotional (fearful or happy faces) or non-emotional (shapes or letters stimuli). Strategic EI, but not experiential EI, significantly influenced participants’ accuracy across all <i>n</i>-back levels, irrespective of flanker type. In Study 2, participants completed 1-, 2-, and 3-back levels. Experiential EI was positively associated with response times for emotional flankers at the 1-back level but not other levels or flanker types, suggesting those higher in experiential EI reacted slower on low-load trials with affective context. In Study 3, flankers were asynchronously presented either 300 ms or 1000 ms before probes. Results mirrored Study 1 for accuracy rates and Study 2 for response times. Our findings (a) provide experimental evidence for the distinctness of experiential and strategic EI and (b) suggest that each are related to different aspects of cognitive processes underlying working memory.https://www.mdpi.com/2079-3200/9/1/12emotional intelligenceMSCEIT<i>n</i>-back taskupdatinginhibitionaffective distractors |
| spellingShingle | Ming D. Lim Damian P. Birney Experiential and Strategic Emotional Intelligence Are Implicated When Inhibiting Affective and Non-Affective Distractors: Findings from Three Emotional Flanker N-Back Tasks Journal of Intelligence emotional intelligence MSCEIT <i>n</i>-back task updating inhibition affective distractors |
| title | Experiential and Strategic Emotional Intelligence Are Implicated When Inhibiting Affective and Non-Affective Distractors: Findings from Three Emotional Flanker N-Back Tasks |
| title_full | Experiential and Strategic Emotional Intelligence Are Implicated When Inhibiting Affective and Non-Affective Distractors: Findings from Three Emotional Flanker N-Back Tasks |
| title_fullStr | Experiential and Strategic Emotional Intelligence Are Implicated When Inhibiting Affective and Non-Affective Distractors: Findings from Three Emotional Flanker N-Back Tasks |
| title_full_unstemmed | Experiential and Strategic Emotional Intelligence Are Implicated When Inhibiting Affective and Non-Affective Distractors: Findings from Three Emotional Flanker N-Back Tasks |
| title_short | Experiential and Strategic Emotional Intelligence Are Implicated When Inhibiting Affective and Non-Affective Distractors: Findings from Three Emotional Flanker N-Back Tasks |
| title_sort | experiential and strategic emotional intelligence are implicated when inhibiting affective and non affective distractors findings from three emotional flanker n back tasks |
| topic | emotional intelligence MSCEIT <i>n</i>-back task updating inhibition affective distractors |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-3200/9/1/12 |
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