Mood congruent Bias in Interpretation of Ambiguity Strategic Processes and Temporary Activation

1997 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Calvo Manuel ◽  
M. Dolores Castillo
Keyword(s):  
Target Word ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Social Evaluation ◽  
High Anxiety ◽  
Ambiguous Information ◽  
Ego Threat ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Interpretative Bias ◽  
Physical Threat ◽  
Ego Threats

Three experiments investigated the tendency of high-anxiety individuals to interpret ambiguous information in a threatening fashion. Priming ambiguous sentences (concerned with ego-threat, physical-threat, or non-threat events) were presented, followed by a disambiguating sentence in which a target word either confirmed or disconfirmed the consequence implied by the priming context. The sentences were presented word-by-word at a predetermined pace. Subjects read the sentences and pronounced the target word (naming task), which appeared either 500 msec or 1,250 msec after the onset of the last word (pre-target word) in the priming context. Results indicated that high-anxiety subjects named target words confirming threats faster than low-anxiety subjects, relative to non-threat words. Furthermore, this interpretative bias is: (a) strategic, rather than automatic, as it occurred with a 1,250-msec SOA, but not with a 500-msec SOA; (b) temporary, as it was found under evaluative stress conditions increasing state anxiety, but not with non-stress; and (c) specific to ego-threats, as it happened with ambiguous information concerning self-esteem and social evaluation, rather than with physical-threat-related information.

Multidimensional Anxiety and Content-specificity Effects in Preferential Processing of Threat

2003 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 252-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel G. Calvo ◽  
P. Avero ◽  
M. Dolores Castillo ◽  
Juan J. Miguel-Tobal
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Color Naming ◽  
Memory Bias ◽  
Ego Threat ◽  
Phobic Anxiety ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Content Specificity ◽  
Specificity Effects

We examined the relative contribution of specific components of multidimensional anxiety to cognitive biases in the processing of threat-related information in three experiments. Attentional bias was assessed by the emotional Stroop word color-naming task, interpretative bias by an on-line inference processing task, and explicit memory bias by sensitivity (d') and response criterion (β) from word-recognition scores. Multiple regression analyses revealed, first, that phobic anxiety and evaluative anxiety predicted selective attention to physical- and ego-threat information, respectively; cognitive anxiety predicted selective attention to both types of threat. Second, phobic anxiety predicted inhibition of inferences related to physically threatening outcomes of ambiguous situations. And, third, evaluative anxiety predicted a response bias, rather than a genuine memory bias, in the reporting of presented and nonpresented ego-threat information. Other anxiety components, such as motor and physiological anxiety, or interpersonal and daily-routines anxiety made no specific contribution to any cognitive bias. Multidimensional anxiety measures are useful for detecting content-specificity effects in cognitive biases.

scholarly journals Together is Better During Acute Threat: Men and Women Desire Affiliation After Laboratory Stress Induction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon Auer ◽  
DeMond Grant ◽  
Jennifer Byrd-Craven ◽  
Christopher N. Sciamanna ◽  
Kristopher Bradley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Acute Stress ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
High Anxiety ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Physical Threat ◽  
Laboratory Stress ◽  
Stressful Environments

<div>Adversity is a pervasive feature of human life, often contributing to poor physical and mental health outcomes. While social support can buffer against the negative consequences associated with stressful life events,</div><div>the conditions under which people seek to establish potentially protective social ties with others in times of distress require greater attention. In a classic study of affiliation, Schachter (1959) provided evidence that women exposed to laboratory stressors had an increased desire for being together. While evolutionary theory broadly predicts that women will seek to form beneficial relationships in stressful environments, when faced with acute threat, men may also benefit from affiliation in the form of coalitions. In the current study, following an adaptation of Schachter’s (1959) experiment, participants (N = 72; 59.7% female; Mage = 19.56 yrs; 74.6% White) were randomized into a</div><div>high-anxiety or low-anxiety group. Logistic regression analyses showed that both men and women in the high-anxiety condition were significantly more likely to desire affiliation than those in the low-stress condition and that participants experiencing anxiety were significantly more likely to desire affiliation than those without anxiety. This study replicates and extends Schachter’s (1959) findings, providing evidence that both men and women prefer to affiliate under conditions of acute stress, specifically within the context of physical threat.</div><div><br></div>

Effects of physical threat and ego threat on eating behavior.

1991 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd F. Heatherton ◽  
C. Peter Herman ◽  
Janet Polivy
Keyword(s):  
Eating Behavior ◽  
Ego Threat ◽  
Physical Threat

scholarly journals Exploring the Activation of Semantic and Phonological Codes during Speech Planning with Event-Related Brain Potentials

2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 951-964 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörg D. Jescheniak ◽  
Herbert Schriefers ◽  
Merrill F. Garrett ◽  
Angela D. Friederici
Keyword(s):  
Target Word ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Size Judgment ◽  
Auditory Target ◽  
Object Processing ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Unrelated Control ◽  
Speech Planning

We present a new technique for studying the activation of semantic and phonological codes in speech planning using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) that extend a well-established behavioral procedure from speech production research. It combines a delayed picture-naming task with a priming procedure. While participants prepared the production of a depicted object's name, they heard an auditory target word. If the prepared picture name and the target word were semantically or phonologically related, the ERP waveform to the target word tended less towards the negative when compared to an unrelated control. These effects were widely distributed. By contrast, if participants performed a nonlinguistic task on the depicted object (natural size judgment), the semantic effect was still obtained while the phonological effect disappeared. This suggests that the former effect indexes semantic activation involved in object processing while the latter effect indexes word-form activation specific to lexical processing. The data are discussed in the context of models of lexical access in speech production.

Anxiety Gives Priority to Anticipation of Threatening Events

2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 234-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Dolores Castillo ◽  
Manuel G. Calvo
Keyword(s):  
Target Word ◽  
Trait Anxiety ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Anxiety Level ◽  
High Anxiety ◽  
Reduced Time ◽  
Selective Effects

Reading times were collected to assess the probability and time course of inferences predictive of danger as a function of anxiety. Participants high or low in trait anxiety read (a) context sentences suggesting threat-related or nonthreat outcomes of events, followed by (b) disambiguating sentences in which a target word confirmed or disconfirmed the predicted outcome. The results revealed that low anxiety facilitated processing of nonthreat outcomes, whereas high anxiety facilitated processing of threatening outcomes. Furthermore, these selective effects occurred on a posttarget region of the disambiguating sentence; in contrast, all participants—regardless of anxiety level and threat content of stimuli—showed facilitation when reading the final region of that sentence. These findings indicate that anxiety leads one to prioritize (i. e., increased probability and reduced time) the anticipation of threat-related events.

ANXIETY AND AFFILIATION (OR ISOLATION?): A NOTE ON TEICHMAN'S STUDY

1990 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Mills Albas
Keyword(s):  
Observational Study ◽  
Trait Anxiety ◽  
Graduate School ◽  
Affiliative Behavior ◽  
Ego Threat ◽  
High Trait ◽  
Ego Threats ◽  
High Trait Anxiety ◽  
Intervening Variables ◽  
General Explanation

Teichman (1987) designed and executed an experiment in which she tested the hypothesis that specific ego threats under conditions of high trait anxiety will produce isolation. Her subjects were groups of students who had either already been accepted into or were competing for entrance to graduate school. On the basis of the results she concluded that anxiety (resulting from a specific ego threat) leads to negative affiliation. A longitudinal participant observational study of university students which had as one of its major foci the affiliative behavior of students immediately prior to writing examinations (specific ego threat) found results opposite to those of Teichman (Albas & Albas, 1984). It is suggested that these polar findings can be reconciled by Rofe and Lewin's (1988) more general explanation that anxiety leads to behavior which strives to minimize stress which, in turn, may be either affiliation or isolation depending upon other intervening variables.

Eyeblink Activity in a Word-Naming Task as a Function of Semantic Priming and Cognitive Load

1996 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 835-842 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hideki Ohira
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Target Word ◽  
Semantic Priming ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Priming Effect ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Naming Speed ◽  
Prime Word ◽  
Priming Task ◽  
Prime Target

Eyeblink activity was examined based on a discrete-trial paradigm in which 17 subjects engaged in a semantic priming task. They were presented a series of pairs of words (prime and target) associatively related or associatively unrelated and were required to name them as quickly as possible. Cognitive load or difficulty of naming of the target word was also manipulated. The latency data for naming of the target word showed a typical priming effect, namely, facilitation of naming speed by the associatively related prime word. The eyeblink rate changed synchronically to onset of stimuli as a function of prime-target relationship and cognitive load during the task. Specifically, the eyeblink rate was suppressed during presentation of the target word and peaked just after that. This study showed that suppression of eyeblinks was longer on trials with high cognitive loads than on those with low cognitive loads and the peak of eyeblink rate was higher on trials for which the prime and target were unrelated than on those for which they were related. These results suggested that the eyeblink activity is influenced by inner cognitive processes of word recognition.

scholarly journals Together is Better During Acute Threat: Men and Women Desire Affiliation After Laboratory Stress Induction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon Auer ◽  
DeMond Grant ◽  
Jennifer Byrd-Craven ◽  
Christopher N. Sciamanna ◽  
Kristopher Bradley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Acute Stress ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
High Anxiety ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Physical Threat ◽  
Laboratory Stress ◽  
Stressful Environments

<div>Adversity is a pervasive feature of human life, often contributing to poor physical and mental health outcomes. While social support can buffer against the negative consequences associated with stressful life events,</div><div>the conditions under which people seek to establish potentially protective social ties with others in times of distress require greater attention. In a classic study of affiliation, Schachter (1959) provided evidence that women exposed to laboratory stressors had an increased desire for being together. While evolutionary theory broadly predicts that women will seek to form beneficial relationships in stressful environments, when faced with acute threat, men may also benefit from affiliation in the form of coalitions. In the current study, following an adaptation of Schachter’s (1959) experiment, participants (N = 72; 59.7% female; Mage = 19.56 yrs; 74.6% White) were randomized into a</div><div>high-anxiety or low-anxiety group. Logistic regression analyses showed that both men and women in the high-anxiety condition were significantly more likely to desire affiliation than those in the low-stress condition and that participants experiencing anxiety were significantly more likely to desire affiliation than those without anxiety. This study replicates and extends Schachter’s (1959) findings, providing evidence that both men and women prefer to affiliate under conditions of acute stress, specifically within the context of physical threat.</div><div><br></div>

Self-Schemas in Social Phobia and Panic Disorder

1999 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 843-854 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan K. van Niekerk ◽  
André T. Möller ◽  
Charl Nortje
Keyword(s):  
Panic Disorder ◽  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Social Phobia ◽  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Color Naming ◽  
The Self ◽  
Modified Stroop ◽  
Physical Threat ◽  
Naming Latencies

A modified Stroop color-naming task was used to investigate whether social phobia and panic disorder are associated with a hypervigilance to social and physical threat-related cues, respectively, as predicted by Beck's cognitive theory of anxiety disorders. Color-naming latencies of 13 individuals with social phobia and 15 with panic disorder for words representing social and physical threats, respectively, were compared to matched neutral control words. The results did not support the hypothesis that the self-schemas of individuals with panic disorder are hypersensitive to information association with physical threat and that persons with social phobia are overly concerned with social threat.

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