IMPLICIT AND EXPLICIT MEMORY FOR EMOTION-CONGRUENT INFORMATION IN CLINICAL DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY

Implicit and explicit memory biases were assessed in clincially depres sed (n = 19), clinically anxious (n = 17), and normal control (n = 18) Ss. The implicit memory test was a primed lexical decision task, with anxiety- and depression-relevant words, and suprathreshold and subthr eshold primes. The explicit memory test was incidental free recall of self-referenced words. The depressed group showed greater suprathresho ld and subthreshold priming effects for depression words, and recalled more depression words, than the other two groups. These results sugge st that clinical depression, but not clinical anxiety, is associated w ith mood-congruent biases in both automatic and strategic memory proce sses.