Social anxiety enhances recognition of task-irrelevant threat words

Abstract

Past research is mixed regarding the conditions under which memory biases emerge in individuals with high levels of social anxiety. The current study examined whether high social anxiety would be associated with a memory bias for threatening, but task-irrelevant information, or whether it creates a memory bias for both threatening as well as neutral distractors.60 undergraduate students were recruited, half classified as having high social anxiety and half as having low social anxiety according to the Social Phobia Inventory. Participants memorized a series of sequentially and visually presented target words that were either all neutral (e.g., patient) or all socially threatening (e.g., embarrassed). Simultaneously during encoding, participants also saw a distractor word on each trial that was either neutral or socially threatening. Memory for targets was then assessed using a recall and recognition test. Incidental recall and recognition tests for the distractors were also administered.There were no group differences in memory for threat versus neutral targets. However, recognition of socially threatening distractors was significantly enhanced in those with high relative to low levels of social anxiety, but only when targets were also socially threatening.Memory biases in high social anxiety were shown to be specific for threat-related distractors rather than general, for all distractors. This specific bias for threat emerged only when the to-be-remembered target information was also threatening. Findings suggest that when social anxiety is primed, attention to irrelevant, but socially threatening, information is heightened.