COGNITIVE INHIBITION IN PHOBIA

Objectives. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether cogni tive bias for threat in anxious individuals mag be attributed to a def ective inhibition. Design. It was investigated whether phobics and not non-phobics would show a defective inhibition of threat words as comp ared to neutral words. Method. Inhibition was measured by a negative p riming task, which was administered to spider phobic participants (N = 29) and non-phobic controls (N = 31). Results. The phobics did not sh ow less negative priming of threatening information. Instead, they sho wed a general delay on all probe displays that were presented after th reatening primes. Conclusion. Anxiety is related to defective inhibiti on of threat, in the sense that this inhibition consumes extra cogniti ve resources.