The impact of emotional face distractors on working memory performance: a meta-analysis of behavioural studies

Task-irrelevant emotional faces may affect working memory (WM) performance by involuntarily capturing attention. However, existing research has not clarified the magnitude or significance of this impact, nor the moderating role of factors such as facial valence. To date, no meta-analysis has examined this topic. This meta-analysis synthesised data from 38 studies, encompassing a total of 1,713 participants, to systematically evaluate the impact of emotional face distractors on WM performance in healthy individuals. The literature search covered seven databases, including PubMed, Embase, and ProQuest. No significant publication bias was detected. The outcome of WM performance precision exhibited moderate heterogeneity, whereas that of reaction time showed no evidence of heterogeneity. Effect size analyses indicated that emotional face distractors, compared to non-emotional references, had no significant impact on WM performance precision or reaction time. Subgroup analyses further indicated that facial valence, emotional face type, non-emotional reference type, participant age, and WM task difficulty did not significantly moderate the two outcomes. The only exception was a very small yet significant negative impact of fearful face distractors on performance precision, although this effect was unstable. This study provides empirical evidence by synthesising findings from extensive research and offers methodological guidance for future research.