"A threatening face in the crowd: Effects of emotional singletons on visual working memory." Published in Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance.
Faces with threatening versus positive expressions are better remembered in visual working memory (WM) and are especially effective at capturing attention. We asked how the presence of a single threatening or happy face affects WM for concurrently viewed faces with neutral expressions. If threat captures attention and attention determines WM, then a WM performance cost for neutral faces should be evident. However, if threat boosts processing in an object-specific, noncompetitive manner, then no such costs should be produced. Participants viewed three neutral and one angry or happy face for 2 s. Face recognition was tested 1 s later. Although WM was better for singletons than nonsingletons and better for angry versus happy singletons, WM for neutral faces remained unaffected by either singleton. These results, combined with eye movement and response time analyses, argue against a selective attention account of threat-based benefits to WM and support object-specific enhancement via threat processing.
Reference
Thomas, P.M. J., Jackson, M.C., & Raymond, J.E (2014). A threatening face in the crowd: Effects of emotional singletons on visual working memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 40(1), 253-263.