Abstract
This study investigated the effects of mood induction on Stroop color-naming times for threat-related words. The subjects’ task was to color-name sets of threat-related words and affectively neutral matched control words both before and after mood-induction. Subjects were shown a short film about the medical effects of nuclear war (negative affect manipulation), a humorous cartoon, or no film. A significant and highly reliable color-naming decrement of the threat-related words was observed only after the negative affect manipulation. This indicates that the attentional bias towards the processing of threat-related material observed in clinically anxious or high Trait-Anxious subjects can be induced in initially nonanxious subjects. An incidental recall task included in the procedure provided no evidence of mood state dependent recall.
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Green, M., Rogers, P.J. & Elliman, N.A. Change in affective state assessed by impaired color-naming of threat-related words. Current Psychology 14, 222–232 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02686909
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02686909