Recall and recognition of threatening, pleasant, and neutral words in repressors

Low accessibility of threatening information is a crucial element in the th eory of repression. Despite many attempts, no empirical evidence has been f ound fori such an inverse memory bins in normal subjects. An alternative ap proach is to study repressive processes as an individual difference. Adopti ng such a trait approach, several studies have shown impaired memory for th reatening memories of real-life episodes in so-called repressors. Several o ther studies have yielded evidence of avoidant processing of mildly threate ning information in the early stages of information processing in repressor s. Thus far, little evidence for a similar avoidant bias in memory has been offered for repressors. To demonstrate the presence of memory deficits for mildly threatening information, we tested recall and cued recognition afte r a 30 min delay, for (i) threatening, (ii) pleasant, and (iii) neutral wor ds in repressors and non-repressors. No proof was found for pool er recall and recognition of threatening words in repressors, oi for lower numbers of threatening semantic intrusions in these individuals, while the power of t he study was adequate. While repression-related avoidant processing may be present for even mildly threatening stimuli at earlier stages of informatio n processing, the results of the present study indicate that repressed memo ry may, only show up for relatively intense emotional events. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons.