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Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 32, No. 12, 1716-1728 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0146167206292595

On the Waxing and Waning of Working Memory: Action Orientation Moderates the Impact of Demanding Relationship Primes on Working Memory Capacity

Nils B. Jostmann

Sander L. Koole

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

The present research examined how actionversus state-oriented individuals (Kuhl & Beckmann, 1994) utilize their working memory capacity under varying situational demands. Participants visualized either a demanding or an accepting person, after which their working memory capacity was assessed. Among action-oriented participants, visualizing a demanding person led to greater operation spans (Study 1) and superior memory for intention-related information (Study 2) than visualizing an accepting person. State-oriented participants displayed the opposite pattern, such that visualizing an accepting person led to greater operation spans (Study 1) and superior memory for intentions (Study 2) than visualizing a demanding person. These findings indicate that action versus state orientation moderates the impact of situational demands on working memory capacity.

Key Words: working memory capacity • action orientation • state ori-entation • relationship schemas

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