Memory Bias in Anxiety Studies have found evidence that anxious participants selectively attend to threatening information (Mathews & MacLeod, 1986; MacLeod et al., 1986). This study examined explicit and implicit memory bias in anxious versus healthy control participants. A bias in implicit memory performance was predicted.explicit and implicit memory memory Study by Mathews et al. (1989):Mathews et al. (1989): Contributor© POSbase 2005

The authors presented a set of threatening words (e.g., humiliated) and nonthreatening words (e.g., cruise). The participants had to imagine a scene involving themselves and the word, and then to rate its pleasantness. After this incidental training task, they were given a cued recall test and a word-stem completion test in balanced order. © POSbase 2005 Memory Bias in Anxiety

____________________________________________________ Group ____________________________________ Currently Anxious Healthy Control ____________________________________________________ Threatening Nonthreatening ____________________________________________________ The interaction was not significant, but the correlation between trait anxiety and recall bias (recall threatening – nonthreatening stimuli) was significant (r =.30 for the whole sample, r =.52 for anxious group). Cued Recall: © POSbase 2005 Memory Bias in Anxiety

4 ____________________________________________________ Group ____________________________________ Currently Anxious Healthy Control ____________________________________________________ Threatening Nonthreatening ____________________________________________________ The interaction was significant, but the correlation between trait anxiety and recall bias (priming threatening – nonthreatening stimuli) was not. Moreover, there was no effect for unprimed stimuli. Priming Word-Stem Completion: © POSbase 2005 Memory Bias in Anxiety

This study supports the notion that anxious people show a bias towards threatening stimuli in implicit memory tasks. As there was no effect on unprimed stimuli, this result is not due to chronic activation of threatening stimuli. However, the correlation data show that explicit memory tasks – which are vulnerable to strategic influences – are affected by trait anxiety. Discussion: © POSbase 2005 Memory Bias in Anxiety

6 Later research has shown mixed results: Some studies found implicit memory effects (MacLeod & McLaughlin, 1995), others did not (Russo et al., 1999). Moreover, anxious people interpret ambiguous information as being threatening (Calvo & Castillo, 2001; MacLeod & Cohen, 1993).MacLeod & Cohen, 1993 This study is in line with research that showed attentional biases in anxiety (Mathews & MacLeod, 1986; MacLeod et al., 1986; Mogg et al., 1993).Mogg et al., 1993 © POSbase 2005 Memory Bias in Anxiety