Bp. Bradley et al., SELECTIVE PROCESSING OF NEGATIVE INFORMATION - EFFECTS OF CLINICAL ANXIETY, CONCURRENT DEPRESSION, AND AWARENESS, Journal of abnormal psychology, 104(3), 1995, pp. 532-536
Anxious patients(n = 20) and normal controls (n = 20) carried out a mo
dified Stroop color-naming task with anxiety- and depression-related w
ords in supraliminal and subliminal exposure conditions. Within the an
xious group, patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) without
concurrent depression (n = 11) showed more color-naming interference f
or anxiety words than neutral words in comparison with patients with a
combined diagnosis of GAD and depression (n = 9). Compared with contr
ols, the GAD subgroup without concurrent depression showed slower colo
r naming for negative than neutral words, in both supraliminal and sub
liminal conditions, replicating K. Mogg, B. P. Bradley, R. Williams, a
nd A. Mathews's (1993) results. These findings provide further evidenc
e of an anxiety-related bias for negative information in preconscious
processes and highlight the importance of assessing concurrent depress
ion.