Colour naming of phobia‐related words

Watts, Fraser; McKenna, Frank; Sharrock, Robert A.; Trezise, Lorna

doi:10.1111/j.2044-8295.1986.tb01985.x

Cited by 409 publications

(247 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Some of the words are related to events that threaten the individual, whereas other words are emotionally neutral. For example, a person who is afraid of spiders may be shown several stimuli involving words like hairy and crawl (e.g., Watts, McKenna, Sharrock, & Trezise, 1986) as well as stimuli involving neutral words. This research shows that people often take longer to identify the color of stimuli containing threatrelevant words than stimuli containing neutral words (for a review, see J. M. G. Williams, Mathews, & MacLeod, 1996).…”

Section: The Injustice Of Innocent Sufferingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Research on Just-World Theory: Problems, Developments, and Future Challenges.

Hafer¹,

Bègue²

2005

Psychological Bulletin

623

547

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M. J. Lerner (1980) proposed that people need to believe in a just world; thus, evidence that the world is not just is threatening, and people have a number of strategies for reducing such threats. Early research on this idea, and on just-world theory more broadly, was reviewed in early publications (e.g., M. J. Lerner, 1980; M. J. Lerner & D. T. Miller, 1978). In the present article, focus is directed on the post-1980 experimental research on this theory. First, 2 conceptualizations of the term belief in a just world are described, the typical experimental paradigms are explained, and a general overview of the post-1980 experiments is provided. Second, problems with this literature are discussed, including the unsystematic nature of the research. Third, important developments that have occurred, despite the problems reviewed, are described. Finally, theoretical challenges that researchers should address if this area of inquiry is to advance in the future are discussed.

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Section: The Injustice Of Innocent Sufferingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Research on Just-World Theory: Problems, Developments, and Future Challenges.

Hafer¹,

Bègue²

2005

Psychological Bulletin

623

547

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A consistent finding in Stroop studies with, for example, spider phobics is that their colour naming of threatening words (e.g., web) is slower than that of neutral words (e.g., car). This would be due to the fact that phobics automatically direct their attention to the content of the threatening words, which in turn interferes with their main task, i.e., colour naming (Watts, McKenna, Sharrock, & Trezise, 1986). There is some evidence that attentional bias also occurs in fearful children.…”

Section: Attentional Biasmentioning

confidence: 99%

The etiology of specific fears and phobias in children: a critique of the non-associative account

Muris

Jong

Ollendick

2002

Behaviour Research and Therapy

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The non-associative account of phobic etiology assumes that a number of specific fears (e.g., fear of heights, water, spiders, strangers, and separation) have an evolutionary background and may occur in the absence of learning experiences (e.g., conditioning). By this view, these specific fears pertain to stimuli that once posed a challenge to the survival of our prehistoric ancestors. Accordingly, they would emerge spontaneously during the course of normal development and only in a minority of individuals, these specific fears would persist into adulthood. While the non-associative approach has generated interesting findings, several critical points can be raised. First, it capitalizes on negative findings, i.e., the failure to document learning experiences (e.g., conditioning, modeling) in the history of phobic children. Second, it largely ignores factors that have been found to be crucial for the acquisition of early childhood fears (e.g., the developmental level of the child, stimulus characteristics such as novelty, aversiveness, and unpredictability, and early experience with uncontrollable events). As an alternative to the non-associative account, we briefly describe a multifactorial model of childhood fears and phobias. 

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“…The emotional Stroop task is a modified version of the traditional Stroop task (Stroop, 1935) but typically involves participants naming the color of threatening words or pictures, rather than the names of colors. Stroop interference is believed to occur when automatic processing of threatening words reduces the speed of color naming (Watts, McKenna, Sharrock & Trezise, 1986). Stroop bias is frequently described as attentional bias (e.g., Williams et al, 1996) but other authors have argued that the task cannot distinguish between selective attention, inhibitive emotional responses, mental preoccupation, or cognitive avoidance for Stroop words (Bögels & Mansell, 2004), so is perhaps best thought of simply as a processing bias (Nightingale, Field & Kindt, 2010).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vicarious learning of children’s social-anxiety-related fear beliefs and emotional Stroop bias.

Askew¹,

Hagel²,

Morgan³

2015

Emotion

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Models of social anxiety suggest that negative social experiences contribute to the development of social anxiety and this is supported by self-report research. However, there is relatively little experimental evidence for the effects of learning experiences on social cognitions.The current study examined the effect of observing a social performance situation with a negative outcome on children's (8-to 11-years-old) fear-related beliefs and cognitive processing. Two groups of children were each shown one of two animated films of a person trying to score in basketball while being observed by others; in one film the outcome was negative and in the other it was neutral. Children's fear-related beliefs about performing in front of others were measured before and after the film and children were asked to complete an emotional Stroop task. Results showed that social fear beliefs increased for children who saw the negative social performance film.In addition, these children showed an emotional Stroop bias for social anxiety-related words compared to children who saw the neutral film. The findings have implications for our understanding of social anxiety disorder and suggest that vicarious learning experiences in childhood may contribute to the development of social anxiety.

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Colour naming of phobia‐related words

Cited by 409 publications

References 17 publications

Experimental Research on Just-World Theory: Problems, Developments, and Future Challenges.

Experimental Research on Just-World Theory: Problems, Developments, and Future Challenges.

The etiology of specific fears and phobias in children: a critique of the non-associative account

Vicarious learning of children’s social-anxiety-related fear beliefs and emotional Stroop bias.

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