Cognitive bias, emotion, and somatic complaints in a normal sample

Cognitive bias (Stroop interference and implicit memory bias) for masked an d unmasked threat words (illness words and negative emotion words) was inve stigated for its associations with emotion (anxiety, anger/aggression, and positive affect) and somatic complaints in a randomly selected community sa mple of 138 individuals. Because measures of cognitive bias are inherently bipolar, the data were tested for both linear and curvilinear trends. Cross -sectional analysis showed that the associations between somatic anxiety an d Stroop interference for unmasked threat words were better described in te rms of curvilinear than linear models, and that degree of somatic complaint s was associated with Stroop facilitation for masked threat words. Longitud inal analysis showed that Stroop interference for masked threat words predi cted lack of positive affect during an ensuing eight weeks daily recording period. Implicit memory bias was found to be negatively associated with mea sures of anger/aggression, both in the cross-sectional and longitudinal ana lyses. We suggest that: (a) cognitive bias should be treated as a bipolar c onstruct in future research; (b) the phenomenon of Stroop facilitation for threat words deserves further exploration; and (c) more research should add ress the question about the relationship between cognitive bias and other e motions than anxiety (e.g., positive affect and anger).