Normals high, medium, and low in trait anxiety performed two encoding
tasks (one predominantly data-driven and the other conceptually driven
) on threat-related and neutral words, followed by tests of word compl
etion, cued recall, and free recall. Memory performance indicated the
existence of negative memory biases in the high trait-anxious group, b
ut it was generally not possible to decide whether the biases were ass
ociated with trait anxiety rather than with depression. The biases wer
e obtained mainly when there was a match between the processes at enco
ding and those at the time of test, whether the matching processes wer
e predominantly data-driven or conceptually driven. Implications of th
ese findings for implicit and explicit memory biases associated with h
igh trait anxiety are discussed.