title: Attention bias towards personally relevant stimuli: the individual emotional Stroop task.
abstract: The emotional Stroop task is a widely used method for investigating attentional bias towards stimuli due to mood or affect. In general, standardized stimuli are used, which might not be appropriate when investigating individual contextual frameworks. It was investigated whether words chosen to be related to individuals' personal life events would produce more pronounced Stroop interference (as an indicator of attentional bias) than stimuli without any personal relevance. Twenty-six nonclinical subjects, 20 female and 6 male, participated in the study. Mean age was 36.1 yr. (SD = 18.1). All were recruited by means of local advertising. Stimulus material consisted of four word types: personal words related to negative life events with and without current personal relevance, and negative and neutral words without any personal relevance. Words were presented in three blocks. Analysis of variance showed main effects for word type and blocks, with slower reactions in the personally relevant conditions than in the negative, or neutral conditions, and in response to the first blocks as opposed to the last. These findings indicate that regardless of the word valence, personally relevant stimuli evoke more pronounced Stroop interference than do stimuli without personal relevance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Bethel, Evangelisches Hospital Bielefeld, Remterweg 69-71, D-33617 Bielefeld, Germany. katja.wingenfeld@evkb.de
authors.forename: Katja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wingenfeld
authors.forename: Renate
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bullig
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mensebach
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hartje
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Driessen
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Beblo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001288:Attention; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time; D012649:Self Concept; D012660:Semantics