title: Emotional stroop performance in older adults:  effects of habitual worry.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In clinically anxious individuals, selective attention to negative cues in the environment may perpetuate a vicious cycle of emotional dysfunction. However, very little is known regarding the role of negative attentional bias in anxious older adults. There is evidence that in older adults without clinical anxiety, the opposite bias (toward positive, and away from negative, emotional material) is present. We explored how these age-related changes in emotional processing interact with anxiety.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty older adults (age 60+) completed the emotional Stroop (eStroop) task, a widely used measure of attentional bias, which requires rapid identification of the color in which neutral and emotional words are printed. Participants were stratified into high-, mid-, and low-worry groups on the basis of a self-report measure, the Penn State Worry Questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The high-worry group exhibited a bias toward threat-related words whereas the low- and mid-worry groups showed a bias away from threat-related words. By contrast, the low- and mid-worry groups showed a bias toward positive words, potentially consistent with an established positivity effect in older adults whereas the high-worry group showed a bias away from positive items.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Older adults who worry frequently exhibit a pattern of eStroop performance that is broadly consistent with the younger adult literature, suggesting that selective attention toward threat-related information may be seen as a relevant factor in older, as in younger, anxiety.
authors.affiliation: Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA. rebecca.price@stanfordalumni.org
authors.forename: Rebecca B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Price
authors.forename: Greg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Siegle
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mohlman
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D057566:Self Report; D057190:Stroop Test / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*