Friend or Foe? Memory and Expectancy Biases for Faces in Social Anxiety

Bielak, Tatiana; Moscovitch, David A.

doi:10.5127/jep.019711

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…On the other hand, studies using facial expressions have yielded mixed results (e.g., Bielak & Moscovitch, 2012;Coles & Heimberg, 2005, Foa, Gilboa-Schechtman, Amir, & Freshman, 2000Lemoult & Joormann, 2012). Differences in methodology could account for these inconsistencies.…”

Section: Long-term Memorymentioning

confidence: 86%

Social anxiety and information processing biases: An integrated theoretical perspective

Peschard

Philippot

2015

Cognition and Emotion

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Models of anxiety disorders posit that information processing biases towards threat may result from an imbalance between top-down attentional control processes and bottom-up attentional processes, such that anxiety could reduce the influence of the former and increase the influence of the latter. However, researchers have recently pointed to limitations of the top-down/bottom-up terminology and outlined the additional contribution of memory processes to attention guidance. The goal of this paper is to provide bridges between recent findings from cognitive psychology and anxiety disorders research. We first provide an integrative overview of the processes influencing the content of working memory, including the availability of attentional control, and the strengths of task goals, stimulus salience, selection history and long-term memory. We then illustrate the interest of this formulation to the study of information processing biases in anxiety disorders, with a specific focus on social anxiety.

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Section: Long-term Memorymentioning

confidence: 86%

Social anxiety and information processing biases: An integrated theoretical perspective

Peschard

Philippot

2015

Cognition and Emotion

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“…Such inconsistency of findings is characteristic of research in this area, with some studies showing evidence of enhanced memory for threatening over neutral material in anxious participants (see for example Cloitre, Shear, Cancienne, & Zeitlin, 1994;Reidy, 2004;Reidy & Richards, 1997a, 1997b and others finding little or no support for a bias of this nature (see for example Bielak, & Moscovitch 2012;Bradley, Mogg, & Williams, 1995;Mathews & MacLeod, 1985;Mogg, Mathews, & Weinman, 1989;Nugent & Mineka, 1994). A meta-analysis on anxiety and memory bias showed a large discrepancy in the effect sizes and even the directionality of the findings in recognitionbased studies (between group effect sizes for hit rates ranged between g = -1.28 and g = 1.27; Mitte, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

It's all about Control: Memory Bias in Anxiety is Restricted to Threat Cues that Signal Controllable Danger

Large

MacLeod

Clarke

et al. 2016

Journal of Experimental Psychopathology

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Although cognitive models of emotion propose that elevated trait anxiety may be associated with a memory bias for threatening information, evidence for such an anxiety-linked memory bias has been highly inconsistent. Given the crucial role of anxiety in preparing individuals to deal with impending danger, we hypothesized that an anxiety-linked memory bias may be restricted to cues that signal danger which can be controlled. High and low trait anxious participants performed a memory task in which three sets of neutral words were presented. These words acted as either controllable threat cues (signaled a loud noise burst that could be avoided through a secondary task), uncontrollable threat cues (signaled an unavoidable noise burst), or non-threat cues (did not signal a noise bursts). As hypothesized, high anxious participants showed better recognition of controllable threat cues as compared to nonthreat cues, whereas no memory bias for uncontrollable threat cues was observed. No memory bias for either type of threat cue was observed in low anxious participants. Future research directions into the relationship between anxiety-linked memory bias and danger controllability are discussed.

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“…Yet evidence of negative memory bias in SA is mixed, prompting a need for clearer identification of the conditions in which it does and does not occur. Several studies have found SA-related memory bias of negative social events that signaled imminent social threat (e.g., Bielak & Moscovitch, 2012; Cody & Teachman, 2010). These studies suggest that memory biases for negative evaluations are especially strong in individuals with SA due to the self-relevant nature of the recalled information.…”

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confidence: 99%

Expectancy bias mediates the link between social anxiety and memory bias for social evaluation

Caouette

Ruiz

Lee

et al. 2014

Cognition and Emotion

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Social anxiety (SA) involves a multitude of cognitive symptoms related to fear of evaluation, including expectancy and memory biases. We examined whether memory biases are influenced by expectancy biases for social feedback in SA. We hypothesized that, faced with a socially evaluative event, people with higher SA would show a negative expectancy bias for future feedback. Furthermore, we predicted that memory bias for feedback in SA would be mediated by expectancy bias. Ninety-four undergraduate students (55 women, mean age = 19.76 years) underwent a two-visit task that measured expectations about (Visit 1) and memory of (Visit 2) feedback from unknown peers. Results showed that higher levels of SA were associated with negative expectancy bias. An indirect relationship was found between SA and memory bias that was mediated by expectancy bias. The results suggest that expectancy biases are in the causal path from SA to negative memory biases for social evaluation.

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Friend or Foe? Memory and Expectancy Biases for Faces in Social Anxiety

Cited by 6 publications

References 48 publications

Social anxiety and information processing biases: An integrated theoretical perspective

Social anxiety and information processing biases: An integrated theoretical perspective

It's all about Control: Memory Bias in Anxiety is Restricted to Threat Cues that Signal Controllable Danger

Expectancy bias mediates the link between social anxiety and memory bias for social evaluation

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