CHANGE IN AFFECTIVE STATE ASSESSED BY IMPAIRED COLOR-NAMING OF THREAT-RELATED WORDS

This study investigated the effects of mood induction on Stroop color- naming times for threat-related words. The subjects' task was to color -name sets of threat-related words and affectively neutral matched con trol words both before and after mood-induction. Subjects were shown a short film about the medical effects of nuclear war (negative affect manipulation), a humorous cartoon, or no film. A significant and highl y reliable color-naming decrement of the threat-related words was obse rved only after the negative affect manipulation. This indicates that the attentional bias towards the processing of threat-related material observed in clinically anxious or high Trait-Anxious subjects can be induced in initially nonanxious subjects. An incidental recall task in cluded in the procedure provided no evidence of mood state dependent r ecall.