Abstract: Self-regulation is a key point for success; however, self-regulation failure happened more often. Baumeister and his colleagues proposed an ego-depletion model for this phenomenon. According to this model, self-regulation need energy which is similar to muscle’s strength and it is limited. The energy will lost temporally when an individual do a self-control task and that is so called ego-depletion. Then people’s performance in the second task which needs self-regulation will get worse. Recently, many researchers demonstrate that not only self-regulation but also executive function both needs resources. That is to say, ego-depletion may hinder executive function’s working. Working memory is well known as a main component of executive function, will it be influenced by ego-depletion? This study included two experiments. Experiment 1 examined the effect of ego-depletion on WM. 40 sixth graders (20 boys, 20 girls) were randomly divided into experimental group and control group and reacted to color-word stroop depleting task or non-depleting task respectively. Then all subjects completed working memory span tasks. The result showed that ego-depletion task impaired working memory, and the capacity of working memory of experimental group decreased significantly comparing with the control group. Experiment 2 investigated whether the negative effect of ego-depletion on working memory could be eliminated by positive emotion. Subjects were 40 sixth graders (21 boys, 19girls). They were randomly divided into experimental group and control group and both groups reacted to color -word stroop depleting task first. Then positive emotion was priming using autobiographical memory in experimental group, at the same time control group had a rest for three minutes. Finally, all subjects completed the working memory span task. The result showed the working memory capacity of experimental group was significant larger than that of control group and there was no difference comparing with the non-depletion group in experiment 1. Conclusions: (1) Ego-depletion had negative influence on working memory; the capacity of working memory would decline quickly when subjects suffered ego-depletion. (2) The negative effect of ego-depletion on working memory could be eliminated by positive emotion.

Key words: ego depletion, self-regulation, working memory, positive emotion

摘要： 实验1考察了自我损耗对工作记忆的影响。40名6年级小学生被随机分配到实验组和控制组，分别完成损耗任务和非损耗任务。结果发现，与控制组相比，实验组被试的工作记忆容量明显降低。实验2考察积极情绪能否克服自我损耗对工作记忆的负面影响。40名6年级小学生参加了实验。在完成损耗任务后，采用自传式回忆的方法诱发实验组的积极情绪。结果发现，诱发被试的积极情绪体验，能够克服自我损耗对于工作记忆的消极影响。

关键词: 自我损耗 自我调控 工作记忆 积极情绪