Mg. Calvo et Md. Castillo, MOOD-CONGRUENT BIAS IN INTERPRETATION OF AMBIGUITY - STRATEGIC PROCESSES AND TEMPORARY ACTIVATION, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology, 50(1), 1997, pp. 163-182
Three experiments investigated the tendency of high-anxiety individual
s to interpret ambiguous information in a threatening fashion. Priming
ambiguous sentences (concerned with ego-threat, physical-threat, or n
on-threat events) were presented, followed by a disambiguating sentenc
e in which a target word either confirmed or disconfirmed the conseque
nce implied by the priming context. The sentences were presented word-
by-word at a predetermined pace. Subjects read the sentences and prono
unced 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 ta
rget words confirming threats faster than low-anxiety subjects, relati
ve 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 ev
aluative 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.