Interactive effects of state anxiety and trait anxiety on emotional Stroop interference

This study examined main, interaction, and quadratic effects of state and trait anxiety on attentional bias toward threat related stimuli. Students (n=121) completed a card version of an emotional Stroop task. While there were no main effects for trait anxiety or state anxiety, regression analyses revealed a significant contribution of the interaction term of both variables. Only for individuals high in trait anxiety, was state anxiety positively related to Stroop interference. In contrast, the low anxious group showed the opposite response pattern. A quadratic effect of trait anxiety was also found but the interaction term proved to be the most important predictor. Implications of these findings are discussed with respect to divergent theoretical conceptions of attentional biases.

[1]  K. Mogg,et al.  Effects of anxiety and awareness on colour-identification latencies for emotional words. , 1993, Behaviour research and therapy.

[2]  C. MacLeod,et al.  Selective processing of threat cues in anxiety states. , 1985, Behaviour research and therapy.

[3]  T. Dalgleish,et al.  The emotional Stroop task and psychopathology. , 1996, Psychological bulletin.

[4]  Mark A. Davis,et al.  Cognitive and emotional components of anxiety: literature review and a revised worry-emotionality scale. , 1981, Journal of educational psychology.

[5]  J. Stroop.  Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. , 1992 .

[6]  Michelle G. Craske,et al.  EFFECTS OF STATE ANXIETY ON SELECTIVE PROCESSING OF THREATENING INFORMATION , 1996 .

[7]  C MacLeod,et al.  Anxiety and the selective processing of emotional information: mediating roles of awareness, trait and state variables, and personal relevance of stimulus materials. , 1992, Behaviour research and therapy.

[8]  Donald E. Broadbent,et al.  Anxiety and Attentional Bias: State and Trait , 1988 .

[9]  C. MacLeod,et al.  Attentional bias in emotional disorders. , 1986, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[10]  C. MacLeod,et al.  Cognitive approaches to emotion and emotional disorders. , 1994, Annual review of psychology.

[11]  R. McNally,et al.  Suppression of the emotional Stroop effect by increased anxiety in patients with social phobia. , 1996, Behaviour research and therapy.

[12]  L. Humphreys,et al.  Assessing spurious "moderator effects": Illustrated substantively with the hypothesized ("synergistic") relation between spatial and mathematical ability. , 1990, Psychological bulletin.

[13]  J. Williams.  Cognitive Psychology and Emotional Disorders , 1991 .

[14]  A. Beck.  Cognitive therapy and the emotional disorders: A. T. Beck , 1987, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[15]  G. Bower.  Mood and memory. , 1981, The American psychologist.

[16]  W. Roth,et al.  Selective processing of threat cues in subjects with panic attacks , 1988 .

[17]  Carla J. Groom,et al.  Attentional bias for emotional faces in generalized anxiety disorder. , 1999, The British journal of clinical psychology.

[18]  Jacob Cohen.  Partialed products are interactions; partialed powers are curve components. , 1978 .

[19]  Yoav Ganzach,et al.  Misleading Interaction and Curvilinear Terms , 1997 .

[20]  H. Merckelbach,et al.  Colour-naming of dentist-related words: Role of coping style, dental anxiety, and trait anxiety. , 1995 .

[21]  M. Eysenck.  Anxiety: The Cognitive Perspective , 1992 .

[22]  F P McKenna,et al.  Colour naming of phobia-related words. , 1986, British journal of psychology.

[23]  K. Mogg,et al.  A cognitive-motivational analysis of anxiety. , 1998, Behaviour research and therapy.

[24]  D. Watson,et al.  Negative affectivity: the disposition to experience aversive emotional states. , 1984, Psychological bulletin.

[25]  A. Richards,et al.  Effects of mood manipulation and anxiety on performance of an emotional Stroop task. , 1992, British journal of psychology.

[26]  K. Mogg,et al.  Selective processing of threat cues in anxiety states: a replication. , 1989, Behaviour research and therapy.

[27]  K. Mogg,et al.  Effects of stress and anxiety on the processing of threat stimuli. , 1990, Journal of personality and social psychology.