title: Emotional Stroop task: effect of word arousal and subject anxiety on emotional interference.
abstract: Inconsistent findings regarding the emotional Stroop effect in healthy subjects may be explained by confounding effects of stimulus valence and arousal, as well as individual differences in anxiety. We examined reaction time data in a healthy sample using the emotional Stroop task while carefully matching arousal level of positive and negative words. Independent of valence, emotional relative to neutral words elicited emotional interference, indicating that arousal determines emotional interference. Independent of valence, emotional words were better re-called and recognized than neutral words. Individual differences in state anxiety were associated with emotional interference, that is, emotional interference was enhanced in subjects with high state anxiety. There was no influence of trait anxiety. These findings indicate that word arousal produces emotional interference independent of valence. State anxiety exacerbates interference of emotional words by further biasing attention towards emotionally salient stimuli.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Neuroscience Research Center, Berlin NeuroImaging Center, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Campus Mitte, Charitéplatz 1, 10117, Berlin, Germany. thomas.dresler@charite.de
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dresler
authors.forename: Katja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mériau
authors.forename: Hauke R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Heekeren
authors.forename: Elke
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: van der Meer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001143:Arousal; D001288:Attention; D003071:Cognition; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D011930:Reaction Time; D021641:Recognition, Psychology