Anxiety and categorization—2. Hierarchical levels of mental categories

Abstract

Assessed the relationship between anxiety and the hierarchical level at which semantic stimuli are categorized. Study 1 examines whether trait anxiety is associated with proneness to use less inclusive levels of categorization instead of more inclusive ones. The other two studies examine whether trait anxiety is related to the sorting of semantic stimuli. Results show that high trait anxiety subjects gave more examples corresponding to a less inclusive level of categorization than low trait anxiety subjects (Study 1), and tend to sort basic level stimuli into a larger number of categories (Studies 2–3). Results were discussed in terms of the cognitive effects of anxiety.