Emotional Modulation of Working Memory in Older Adults: Dissociable Contributions of Cognitive Reserve and Emotional Intelligence

Background/Objectives: Working memory declines with age, particularly under conditions of high cognitive load. Emotional information can modulate performance depending on its task relevance and on individual cognitive and emotional resources. This study investigated the dissociable contributions of cognitive reserve (CR) and emotional intelligence (EI) to accuracy and response dynamics in an emotional n-back task in older adults. Methods: Forty-five healthy older adults completed an emotional n-back task under low (1-back) and high (2-back) cognitive load. Task relevance was manipulated by requiring judgments either on facial expressions (Emo task) or on age-related features (Age task). Accuracy and reaction times were analyzed using mixed-effects models, with CR and EI entered as continuous covariates. Results: Higher cognitive load was associated with reduced accuracy and slower reaction times. Emotional modulation of performance emerged primarily when emotional information was task-relevant. Happy facial expressions were associated with faster reaction times and higher accuracy than angry expressions, particularly under high cognitive load. CR was positively associated with overall accuracy across conditions, without interacting with task demands or emotional content. In contrast, EI did not predict accuracy but selectively modulated reaction times as a function of task relevance and emotional valence, with opposite effects observed across tasks for positive stimuli. Conclusions: These findings indicate that emotional modulation of working memory in older adults is strongly context-dependent. CR supported accuracy in a domain-general manner, whereas EI selectively modulated response speed in emotionally salient contexts without conferring a direct accuracy advantage. Cognitive and emotional resources thus contributed to distinct yet interacting components of working memory performance in ageing, suggesting that successful functioning in later life depends not only on preserved processing capacity but also on the flexible regulation of emotionally salient information.