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Stroop effects for masked threat words: Preattentive bias or selective awareness?

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Author

  • J Wikström
  • Lars-Gunnar Lundh
  • J Westerlund

Summary, in English

The single-trial emotional Stroop effect for masked threat words, and its association with anxiety, anger, and depression was studied in a group of men (n = 24) and women (n = 24) while controlling for possible differential thresholds for threat words vs. neutral words. Stroop interference for masked threat words was found to correlate with trait anxiety, and the effect could not be explained by any differences in thresholds due to valence, neither at a subjective (conscious identification task) nor at an objective (lexical decision task) level of awareness. Jacoby’s exclusion task was explored as an alternative measure of conscious awareness, and the results corroborated the conclusion that the Stroop effect for masked threat words was the result of preattentive processes. Unexpectedly, however, the correlation between Stroop interference for masked threat words and trait anxiety was found only among the men.

Publishing year

2003

Language

English

Pages

827-842

Publication/Series

Cognition and Emotion

Volume

17

Issue

6

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Topic

  • Psychology

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0269-9931