Memory bias for threatening information in anxiety and anxiety disorders: A meta-analytic review.

Although some theories suggest that anxious individuals selectively remember threatening stimuli, findings remain contradictory despite a considerable amount of research. A quantitative integration of 165 studies with 9,046 participants (clinical and nonclinical samples) examined whether a memory bias exists and which moderator variables influence its magnitude. Implicit memory bias was investigated in lexical decision/stimulus identification and word-stem completion paradigms; explicit memory bias was investigated in recognition and recall paradigms. Overall, effect sizes showed no significant impact of anxiety on implicit memory and recognition. Analyses indicated a memory bias for recall, whose magnitude depended on experimental study procedures like the encoding procedure or retention interval. Anxiety influenced recollection of previous experiences; anxious individuals favored threat-related information. Across all paradigms, clinical status was not significantly linked to effect sizes, indicating no qualitative difference in information processing between anxiety patients and high-anxious persons. The large discrepancy between study effects in recall and recognition indicates that future research is needed to identify moderator variables for avoidant and preferred remembering. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Shifts in attention biases in response to acute pain induction: Examination of a model of "conversion" among repressors.

Unlike most people, those who are characterized by a repressive coping style report high levels of physical (sensory) pain but low levels of emotional distress (affective pain), which is a discrepancy that may suggest a “conversion” process. In two studies, we tested an attention allocation model, proposing that repressors direct attention away from threatening negative affective information and toward nonthreatening physical pain information during emotionally arousing (painful) situations. In Study 1, 84 participants underwent a cold pressor and then recovered. Repressors reported greater pain during recovery than low- and high-anxious participants, but they reported lower distress than high-anxious participants. Repressors reported significant and large discrepancies between high pain and low distress, whereas these differences were less pronounced for other groups. In Study 2, 77 participants underwent an ischemic pain task while performing a modified dot-probe task with sensory and negative affective pain words as stimuli. Repressors showed increasing biases away from affective pain words and toward sensory pain words as the pain task continued, whereas low- and high-anxious participants did not show these shifts in attention. The results support the notion that conversion among repressors may involve a process by which attention is directed away from emotional distress during noxious stimulation and is focused instead on sensory information from pain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Repressive coping and verbal-autonomic response dissociation: The influence of social context.

Examined whether verbal–autonomic response dissociation in repressive copers is potentiated by conditions that enhance social evaluative concerns. Women classified as repressive, low-anxious, or high-anxious gave a self-disclosing speech in either a private condition (a single researcher observed) or a public condition (3 researchers ostensibly observed). Repressors exhibited heart rate elevations that were greater in magnitude than their self-reports of negative affect, but only in the public condition. High-anxious Ss in both conditions showed an opposite pattern of verbal–autonomic dissociation in which self-reported negative affect exceeded cardiac response. Low-anxious Ss in both conditions showed little responsivity in either channel. Results are interpreted within a self-regulatory framework in which differences in self-concept in the domain of emotionality predispose repressive and high-anxious individuals to engage in contrasting, emotion-focused coping styles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping dispositions and the processing of ambiguous stimuli.

This study examined associations between coping dispositions (vigilance, cognitive avoidance) and indicators of the processing of ambiguous stimuli. In the first phase of the investigation, 58 male participants were presented with a series of sentences that could be interpreted in a threatening or a nonthreatening fashion. The participants had to rate the unpleasantness of the events described in the sentences. Subsequently a previously unannounced recognition memory test for disambiguated (threatening and nonthreatening) variants of the sentences was carried out. Evidence based on ratings, reaction times, and recognition memory measures indicated that vigilant individuals are characterized by processing activities that favor the intake and storage of the threatening rather than the nonthreatening meanings of ambiguous stimuli. Highly avoidant nonvigilant individuals (repressers) showed a disproportionately large number of extremely delayed ratings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of social anxiousness in group brainstorming.

The authors predicted that individuals high in dispositional anxiousness would perform poorly when brainstorming in groups but not during solitary brainstorming. Exp demonstrated this result in a comparison of groups of 4 that were all high or all low in interaction anxiousness. In groups with 2 low- and 2 high-anxious individuals, the low-anxious individuals lowered their performance in the direction of the high-anxious individuals. These results suggest that part of the productivity loss observed in interactive brainstorming groups may be due to the inhibited performance of individuals who are uncomfortable with group interaction. Moreover, these individuals may influence others in the group to lower their performance in line with that inhibited performance level. Exp 2 demonstrated that poor performance of socially anxious groups in interactive brainstorming is not dependent on whether group members have individual microphones or share 1 common microphone. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive processing bias of children in a real life stress situation and a neutral situation

The aim of this study was to investigate whether nonclinically anxious children, like anxious adults, favor the processing of threatening or concern-related information. Two experiments, using an emotional Stroop task, were carried out in high anxious and low anxious children aged 8 to 9 to examine whether a medical stressor elicited a processing bias. Results indicated that, independently of the presence of the medical stressor, all children give high priority to the processing of information related to physical harm. Moreover, like anxious adults in other studies, high anxious children showed a processing bias for generally threatening information. This bias was absent in the vicinity of an acute stressor and it was only significant in girls. However, unlike low anxious adults, low anxious girls also showed this processing bias. These results are interpreted in terms of cognitive developmental differences in the ability to inhibit the processing of meaningful information.     

Coping With Threat and Memory for Ambiguous Information: Testing the Repressive Discontinuity Hypothesis.

Two studies examined the influence of coping dispositions (repression, sensitization, and nondefensiveness) and anxiety on the encoding and memory representation of ambiguous threat-related stimuli. In Study 1, memory was tested shortly after encoding. Study 2 contrasted immediate and delayed testing. Repressers showed evidence of "mixed" affective reactions to ambiguous stimuli at encoding, accompanied by weak memory representation of potentially threatening implications of these stimuli. In contrast, sensitizers and anxious individuals manifested a processing bias in favor of threatening implications of ambiguous stimuli. Influences of coping on memory were most pronounced for delayed testing. Anxiety influences on memory were weak. An expectancy-based account of individual differences in processing ambiguous stimuli is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpretive biases for one's own behavior and physiology in high-trait-anxious individuals and repressors.

The experiments reported here were designed to test predictions from a cognitive theory of personality proposed by M. W. Eysenck (1997). According to that theory, many of the observed differences between individuals high in trait anxiety and repressors (individuals low in trait anxiety and high in social desirability) depend on underlying individual differences in cognitive biases. It follows from the theory that high-anxious individuals should have an interpretive bias for their own behavior in social situations, that is, they exaggerate how anxious it is. In contrast, repressors should have an opposite interpretive bias for their own behavior, that is, they underestimate how anxious it is. Evidence consistent with these predictions was obtained in Experiments 1 and 2. Implications of these findings for cognitive theories of personality are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpretation of homophones related to threat in anxiety states.

In previous studies, we have established that anxiety states are characterized by an attentional bias that favors the processing of threatening stimuli. In the present study we extend this finding to ambiguous stimuli, specifically, homophones with spellings that correspond to either a threatening or a neutral meaning. As predicted, clinically anxious subjects used the threatening spellings relatively more than did controls, whereas recovered subjects were intermediate in this respect. Threatening words were associated with greater skin conductance responses than were neutral words, but the groups did not differ in their electrodermal reactions to homophones. We take these findings as evidence that, although the different meanings of ambiguous stimuli may be processed in parallel by all subjects, an interpretive bias operates such that anxiety-prone individuals tend to become preferentially aware of the more threatening meaning of such events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in repressive-defensiveness predict basal salivary cortisol levels.

Prior studies assessing the relation between negative affective traits and cortisol have yielded inconsistent results. Two studies assessed the relation between individual differences in repressive-defensiveness and basal salivary cortisol levels. Experiment I assessed midafternoon salivary cortisol levels in men classified as repressors, high-anxious, or low-anxious. In Experiment 2, more rigorous controls were applied as salivary cortisol levels in women and men were assessed at 3 times of day on 3 separate days. In both studies, as hypothesized, repressors and high-anxious participants demonstrated higher basal cortisol levels than low-anxious participants. These findings suggest that both heightened distress and the inhibition of distress may be independently linked to relative elevations in cortisol. Also discussed is the possible mediational role of individual differences in responsivity to, or mobilization for, uncertainty or change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correlation, conflict, and choice.

Examined the degree to which individuals adapt their decision processes to the degree of interattribute correlation and conflict characterizing a decision problem. On the basis of an effort–accuracy framework for adaptive decision making, it was predicted that the more negatively correlated the attribute structure, the more people will use strategies that process much of the relevant information and make trade-offs. A computer simulation study supported these predictions, and 2 experiments using process-tracing techniques to monitor information acquisition indicated that individuals did indeed respond to interattribute correlation by shifting their processing strategies in ways that are adaptive according to the effort–accuracy framework. In particular, they faced conflict rather than avoided it and generally processed more information, were less selective, and showed more alternative-based processing in negatively correlated environments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reflections on conceptual tempo: Relationship between cognitive style and performance as a function of task characteristics.

Reflectives have been shown to outperform impulsives on tasks that require a cautious, systematic approach. A study was conducted to determine whether reflectives, particularly high-anxious reflectives, would show superior performance on speeded tasks; i.e., whether they would exhibit flexibility vs continued caution at the expense of performance. 46 male and 54 female 4th graders, selected by their scores on the Test Anxiety Scale for Children and the Lie Scale for Children as being reflective and impulsive, high and low anxious, were presented with speeded tasks of increasing difficulty. Results reveal that contrary to prediction, high-anxious reflectives performed as well as low-anxious reflectives and both were generally faster and more accurate than impulsives. Only for girls on the most difficult task was there evidence that reflection in combination with high anxiety resulted in overly cautious behavior and impaired performance. Results suggest a definition of cognitive style that stresses the strategy used rather than the disposition for long or short decision times. In addition, a model is proposed to predict the relative speed and accuracy of reflectives and impulsives as a function of the strategy required and the degree of intertrial transfer on the task. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is increased arousal in social anxiety noticed by others?

Self–peer ratings were compared for high- and low-anxious (Social Avoidance and Distress Scale) undergraduates on 3 personality dimensions: anxiety, friendliness, and conscientiousness. The hypothesis that elevated somatic symptoms in socially anxious individuals contributes to the perceived salience of one's anxiety was examined. 19 low-anxious/low-somatic, 8 high-anxious/low-somatic and 7 high-anxious/high-somatic Ss and 34 of their peers completed a trait rating, observability rating, and behavioral checklist for each of the above dimensions. MANOVAs indicated that self-rated anxiety was significantly greater than peer-rated anxiety for the high-anxious/high-somatic Ss only. These Ss also reported that they displayed significantly more behavioral signs of anxiety than were noticed by their peers. No significant self–other discrepancies were observed for the traits of friendliness and conscientiousness. Findings suggest that a central concern associated with social anxiety—that symptoms of anxiety are salient to others—may derive, in part, from the experience of elevated somatic concomitants of anxiety. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The discrepant repressor: Differentiation between low anxiety, high anxiety, and repression of anxiety by autonomic–facial–verbal patterns of behavior.

Examined the notion that personality questionnaires can be used to predict different styles of coping with anxiety, as expressed by individual differences in patterns of autonomic, verbal, and nonverbal reactions. In line with earlier modifications of the repression–sensitization concept, the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (MAS) and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (SDS) were used to select 4 groups of 12 Ss each from a pool of 206 male university students in Germany: low-anxious Ss, repressors, high-anxious Ss, and defensive high-anxious Ss. Measures of autonomic arousal, facial activity, and self-reported affect were obtained during a potentially anxiety-arousing free-association task and during a number of control conditions, including an amusing film. Significant differences in baseline-corrected heart rate and self-reported anxiety as well as rated facial anxiety all indicated that repressors exhibited a discrepancy between low self-reported anxiety and high heart rate and facial anxiety; low anxious Ss reported an intermediate level of anxiety, although they showed low heart rate and facial anxiety; high-anxious Ss had consistently high values on all 3 variables; and the defensive high-anxious Ss showed an intermediate level of anxious responding. These group differences were specific to the task of freely associating to phrases of mixed (sexual, aggressive, neutral) content and to self-reported anxiety, indicating that they reflect individual differences in coping with anxiety. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive realism from the perspective of cognitive-experiential self-theory

To explain why the depressive realism effect has been found in trivial, artificial laboratory but not in more realistic or emotionally engaging situations, the authors hypothesized that depressed people overcompensate for a tendency toward maladaptive experiential (intuitive) processing by exercising excessive rational control in trivial situations. In more consequential situations, they are unable to control their maladaptive experiential processing because it is excessive, or their rational control is insufficient, or both. As predicted, a subclinically depressed group (n = 39) made more optimal decisions than a nondepressed control group (n = 36) under trivial conditions, and the groups converged under more consequential conditions, with the depressed group responding less and the control group more optimally. Also, the depressed group reported engaging in less rational processing and in more maladaptive experiential processing in everyday life than did the control group.     

Conflict, receiver bias and the evolution of signal form

In a model, conflicts of interest between communicating individuals are shown to have an important influence on the cost and form of signals that evolve. Two types of conflict are considered: competition between senders to obtain a response from the receiver, and conflict between the sender and the receiver. The receiver system is modelled as an artificial neural network whose 'resistance' to signals is represented as a motivational factor that varies independently of the signal. Biases in the receiver system act as the selective force on signals, causing them to become more costly and conspicuous as the intensity of conflict increases. There is some evidence that competition between senders and sender-receiver conflict may have qualitatively different outcomes. We give examples of some situations to which the model might be applied and point out some predictions that could be tested empirically.     

Models for the effects of individual size and spatial scale on competition between species in heterogeneous environments

A spatially explicit model for competition with dispersal in a heterogeneous environment is used to study the effects of individual size and the spatial scale of the environment on the competitive interactions between species. The model is a Lotka-Volterra competition system with diffusion and with spatial variation in some coefficients. The coefficients in the model are taken to reflect a situation where the larger competitor typically disperses farther in unit time than the smaller and reproduces less rapidly, but has an advantage in contests or other forms of interference competition. The environment is assumed to be closed, i.e., it is assumed that individuals do not leave through the boundary. The environment is generally assumed to consist of a patch of favorable habitat surrounded by less favorable regions. The effects of spatial scale are studied by examining how the predictions of the model change as the size of the favorable patch is varied. The predictions turn out to be in qualitative agreement with the results of some empirical studies.     

Framing, cognitive modes, and image theory: Toward an understanding of a glass half full.

Data from 2 experiments indicate that information framing affects decision episodes in more ways than previous studies showed. Results suggest that framing biases problem-space perceptions and may act as a catalyst for different modes of cognitive processing. Characteristics of controlled cognitive modes were found when information was negatively framed; characteristics of more automatic processing were found when information was positively framed. Results from the 2nd experiment also suggest that the emergence of these cognitive differences could be due to the effect of framing on a decision maker's perception of project images. Positive framing was associated with perception of compatibility between current and trajectory project images; negative framing was related to perceptions of greater image incompatibility. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)