IDENTIFICATION AND MEMORY FOR FEAR-RELEVANT STIMULI - IMPLICIT MEMORYPERFORMANCE OF INSECT FEARFULS FAVORS FEAR-RELEVANT PICTURES

This study examined the relationship between fear level and memory for fear-relevant acid fear-irrelevant stimuli. Memory was assessed with an explicit measure (verbal free recall) and an implicit measure (prim ing on picture identification). Ten nonclinical volunteers high on rep orted insect fear were compared to ten individuals selected for low re ported insect fear. No performance advantage for material congruent wi th the fear was observed among high insect fearfuls on free recall. Ho wever, an interaction between fear level and material type emerged in the repetition priming data. Insect fearfuls identified degraded pictu res of insects most readily on their second presentation, while nonfea rfuls displayed an advantage for recognising pictures of animals on th eir second presentation. The results from this analogue study are cons istent with the model of cognition and emotion proposed by Williams, W atts, MacLeod, and Mathews (1988), which proposes that anxiety will be associated with changes in the process of integration considered to u nderlie performance on implicit memory tests.