Journey 8 · Abundance
Worry and the Mind’s Working Space
Across 177 samples and 22,061 people, higher self-reported anxiety went with somewhat poorer performance on working-memory tasks, a link averaged across many studies.
Working memory is the mind’s working space: what you hold in view and juggle right now. A 2016 meta-analysis pooled 177 samples, 22,061 people in all, and found that higher self-reported anxiety went with somewhat poorer performance on working-memory tasks (Moran, 2016).
Read it for what it is: a link averaged across many studies, not a rule for every moment. It measured anxiety in general, not money worry in particular, and not every worried moment costs the same.
Journey 8, Abundance, guided by Abri, counts this as part of the machinery under its Scarcity Tax: a mind busy with ‘not enough’ may have less room left for everything else. That cost is not a flaw in you. What is taking up room in your mind today?
The research
Strong evidence Replicated findings and meta-analyses.
- Moran, T. P. (2016). Anxiety and working memory capacity: A meta-analysis and narrative review. Psychological Bulletin, 142(8), 831–864.
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