Perceptual reactivity to threat and neutral words under varying experimental conditions.

30 male and 30 female introductory psychology student volunteers were randomly assigned by sex to one of 3 experimental groups and were tested for perceptual reactivity to threat and neutral words matched for word frequency. The experimental groups differed only in terms of induced strength of expectation for threat words from 0% to 100%. Findings support the prediction that the discrepancy between threat and neutral word thresholds decreases as strength of set for threat stimuli increases. However threat words were found to have higher report thresholds than neutral words in all conditions. 18 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)