EMBODIED POSTURE MODULATES AFFECTIVE STATES AND WORKING MEMORY EFFICIENCY

This pilot study examined whether brief changes in bodily posture can modulate affective states and influence working memory efficiency. For this aim, fifty-one healthy adults were randomly assigned to adopt either an expansive high-power or contractive low-power posture and completed a series of measures designed to assess both subjective and cognitive responses. After collecting demographic and behavioral covariates, participants completed baseline ratings of perceived power, happiness, energy, and a 2-back task. They then maintained the assigned posture for two minutes and subsequently completed the same affective ratings and an experimental 2-back task. Results showed that expansive posture increased perceived power and energy relative to the contractive posture, while no differences emerged for happiness. In addition, performance on the n-back task indicated that participants in the expansive condition exhibited higher accuracy and faster reaction times compared to those in the contractive condition. Although modest, these effects suggest that bodily configuration can influence both affective appraisal and the efficiency of executive operations, and the findings provide preliminary evidence for a link between posture, subjective experience, and working memory performance, highlighting promising directions for future research on embodied cognitive modulation.