Sr. Vrana et al., SELECTIVE PROCESSING OF TRAUMA-RELEVANT WORDS IN POSTTRAUMATIC-STRESS-DISORDER, Journal of anxiety disorders, 9(6), 1995, pp. 515-530
This study investigated Stroop color-naming of trauma-related words in
male Vietnam combat veterans with (n = 42) and without (n = 15) postt
raumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The anxiety connotations of the words
were either very specific to the Vietnam experience (point, lead), ge
neral but still Vietnam-related (medevac, bodybags), or general and no
t specifically related to Vietnam (crash, grief). All three categories
of words slowed color-naming compared to neutral control words. This
was true for all subjects, but the effect was more pronounced in veter
ans with PTSD. The generally negative but still Vietnam-related words
caused more interference in color-naming than did the other categories
of words, which was attributed to their ability to access Vietnam com
bat memories more efficiently. There was a free recall and recognition
memory advantage for the emotion words, suggesting that the Stroop in
terference effect was mediated by an attentional bias towards the anxi
ety-related material rather than avoidance of it. Veterans with PTSD w
ere slower in color-naming overall, an effect that could not be attrib
uted to group differences in psychiatric medication, depression, or an
xiety.