When threat comes from within: first evidence that internal appraisal impairs working memory

Emotional stimuli, especially threatening ones, are known to consume attentional resources, and thus impair working memory (WM). However, this effect has only been demonstrated with perceptual threats (e.g., images of snakes), whereas real-life threats often arise from internal cognitive appraisal of possible negative outcomes. Although this has never been directly tested, WM models suggest that internal appraisals should also impair WM. We tested this hypothesis in two experiments using a novel paradigm that induced internal threat appraisals, under low and high task demands, during a complex span task. Across both experiments, threat appraisals impaired WM performance. Crucially, under high task demand, this impairment was amplified in individuals with elevated cognitive anxiety, particularly when the threat required greater cognitive elaboration. This study introduces a novel paradigm to assess internally generated threat appraisal and demonstrates, for the first time, that it disrupts WM processes similarly to external emotional stimuli.