Are negative affect and executive functioning related in healthy young adults?

The present study examined associations between negative affect (NA) and executive functioning (EFs) in healthy young adults. Thirty-nine participants completed a battery of cognitive tasks assessing EFs, that is visuospatial learning, attention, planning, working memory, and cognitive flexibility, alongside self-report measures of anxiety, depression, stress, and mood. Pearson correlations were computed between affective and cognitive measures. Firstly, not all affective measures were related to cognitive outcomes, and associations varied across tasks and domains. Secondly, higher levels of stress and mood-related dimensions were negatively associated with visuospatial learning and attentional performance, while state anxiety was positively associated with reaction times in complex planning tasks. In contrast, positive associations emerged between mood dimensions and performance in a task requiring generative processes. These findings indicate that NA is differentially associated with executive functions in non-clinical populations, highlighting the importance of considering both task characteristics and specific affective dimensions.