How preferential is the preferential encoding of threatening stimuli? Working memory biases in specific anxiety and the Attentional Blink.

Journal article

Temporal visual working memory (VWM) biases in spider anxiety were studied with an Attentional Blink paradigm. In Experiment 1, participants viewed pictures sequentially presented at rates of 80 ms and were instructed to memorize two target pictures. We varied time between targets and valence of the second target (neutral: mushroom, positive: blossom, negative: spider). In Experiment 2, spider fearfuls and non-anxious controls (both without snake anxiety) participated. Here we tested two nega...

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Authors: Reinecke, A; Rinck, M; Becker, E

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Journal of anxiety disorders
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 655-670
• Publication date: 2008-05-01
• DOI: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2007.06.004
• EISSN: 1873-7897
• ISSN: 0887-6185
• Language: English
• Keywords: Adolescent; Memory, Short-Term; Students; Arousal; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Fear; Humans; Reaction Time; Adult; Female; Phobic Disorders; Attentional Blink; Mental Recall; Male