The Stroop effect is commonly demonstrated by measuring the time required to identify the colour of the ink (e.g. blue) in which a colour word (e.g. RED) is printed and illustrates a strong interference effect when the prepotent response of processing the word must be inhibited to respond correctly to the colour of the ink. Longer response latencies in colour-identification tasks involving emotional words versus neutral words, an effect dubbed the Emotional Stroop (ES), is often likened to the type of interference found in the Stroop task. However, research has suggested that the effect of attentional modulation in Stroop tasks may be very different from the kind of emotional interference found when comparing reaction times to emotional versus neutral words (McKenna & Sharma, 2004). Proportional congruency experiments using the Stroop task manipulate the amount of incongruity present in a block of trials (Logan & Zbrodoff, 1979), and demonstrate attentional modulation as a change in the size of the Stroop effect such that a greater amount of Stroop interference in a block is associated with a smaller Stroop effect. Manipulating the proportion of interference trials may inform understanding of the differences between Stroop colour-word interference and emotional-word interference. In three experiments, we manipulated the proportion of emotional words in a mixed-list design to study the effect of proportion manipulation on the ES. An enlarged ES was found in blocks of trials that contained more emotional interference; a finding contrary to attentional modulation seen for proportion manipulations of congruency in the Stroop task. The differences between the ES effect and the Stroop effect are discussed, including the role of response incongruity as one possible reason for the discrepancy. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / In three experiments, we investigated the role of proportionally more or less emotional interference on a colour naming task. Emotional interference in the form of emotional words was compared to response interference where participants see mismatched and matched colour words (e.g. the word ‘NIGHTMARE’ in green versus the word ‘BLUE’ in green). We expected participants to be able to learn which blocks contained more emotional word content and to adapt in order to reduce this slow-down effect. Instead, participants were especially slow on emotional words when they were in blocks that contained more emotional word interference. The possible importance of emotional stimuli to participants over the task demands of naming the colour of a word, as compared to other kinds of interference, is discussed.

Résumé : La psychologie cognitive s'intéresse depuis quelques années à un effet de positivité qui semble apparaître avec l'avancement en âge. Cet effet serait également lié à la diminution, voire la disparition, d'un biais attentionnel négatif, naturellement présent chez les jeunes adultes. Celui-ci consiste en une plus grande perturbation de l'attention sélective en présence de stimuli négatifs. Une tâche cognitive d'attention sélective très utilisée pour étudier ce biais cognitif est le Stroop émotion. Présentant des mots à valence négative, positive et neutre, il permet de vérifier l'effet d'interférence que produisent ces stimuli sur la capacité d'inhibition. Jusqu'à présent, les rares études utilisant le Stroop émotion auprès d'une population âgée sans trouble cognitif ne présentent pas de consensus permettant de statuer clairement sur la modification de ce biais cognitif dans le vieillissement. La présente étude proposait d'utiliser le Stroop émotion pour observer l'effet du vieillissement sur l'attention sélective, en répondant aux principales recommandations méthodologiques tirées des études précédentes. Il était attendu que les âgés ne devaient pas présenter d'effet d'interférence en réponse aux stimuli négatifs, contrairement aux jeunes adultes. Les résultats obtenus ont toutefois révélé la présence d'un biais attentionnel négatif tant chez les âgés que chez les jeunes adultes. L'interprétation de ces performances est discutée en regard des exigences cognitives du Stroop émotion. Il pourrait ainsi être plus facile de mettre en évidence la diminution du biais attentionnel négatif à l'aide d'une présentation différente des stimuli qui permettrait la mise en place de l'effet de positivité chez les âgés.||Abstract : For some years now, cognitive psychology has taken an interest in a positivity effect that appears with increased age. This effect is claimed to be related to the decrease in, or even disappearance of, a negative attentional bias that is naturally present in young adults; this effect consists in a greater disruption of selective attention in the presence of negative stimuli. A cognitive task measuring selective attention that is often used to study this cognitive bias is the emotional Stroop test. This task presents words with negative, positive and neutral valence and tests how these stimuli interfere with inhibition capacity. To date, the few studies that have used the emotional Stroop in an elderly population without cognitive disorders have not produced a consensus that would give us a clear sense of the change in this cognitive bias with aging. This study proposed to use the emotional Stroop to observe the effect of aging on selective attention by following the main methodological recommendations arising from earlier studies. It was expected that elderly people would not present an interference effect in response to negative stimuli, unlike young adults. However, the results revealed a negative attentional bias in both older and younger adults. This finding is interpreted in relation to the cognitive demands of the emotional Stroop. It could therefore be easier to highlight the decrease in negative attentional bias by using a different method of presenting stimuli, which would reveal the positivity effect in elderly people.

It has been proposed that body image disturbance is a form of cognitive bias wherein schemas for self-relevant information guide the selective processing of appearancerelated information in the environment. This threatening information receives disproportionately more attention and memory, as measured by an Emotional Stroop and incidental recall task. The aim of this thesis was to expand the literature on cognitive processing biases in non-clinical males and females by incorporating a number of significant methodological refinements. To achieve this aim, three phases of research were conducted. The initial two phases of research provided preliminary data to inform the development of the main study. Phase One was a qualitative exploration of body image concerns amongst males and females recruited through the general community and from a university. Seventeen participants (eight male; nine female) provided information on their body image and what factors they saw as positively and negatively impacting on their self evaluations. The importance of self esteem, mood, health and fitness, and recognition of the social ideal were identified as key themes. These themes were incorporated as psycho-social measures and Stroop word stimuli in subsequent phases of the research. Phase Two involved the selection and testing of stimuli to be used in the Emotional Stroop task. Six experimental categories of words were developed that reflected a broad range of health and body image concerns for males and females. These categories were high and low calorie food words, positive and negative appearance words, negative emotion words, and physical activity words. Phase Three addressed the central aim of the project by examining cognitive biases for body image information in empirically defined sub-groups. A National sample of males (N = 55) and females (N = 144), recruited from the general community and universities, completed an Emotional Stroop task, incidental memory test, and a collection of psycho-social questionnaires. Sub-groups of body image disturbance were sought using a cluster analysis, which identified three sub-groups in males (Normal, Dissatisfied, and Athletic) and four sub-groups in females (Normal, Health Conscious, Dissatisfied, and Symptomatic). No differences were noted between the groups in selective attention, although time taken to colour name the words was associated with some of the psycho-social variables. Memory biases found across the whole sample for negative emotion, low calorie food, and negative appearance words were interpreted as reflecting the current focus on health and stigma against being unattractive. Collectively these results have expanded our understanding of processing biases in the general community by demonstrating that the processing biases are found within non-clinical samples and that not all processing biases are associated with negative functionality

To explore the application of a cognitive test useful in screening of Exhaustion Disorder (ED), this study aimed to develop a Modified Stroop Task for ED. Participants’ scores on measures of burnout, anxiety, depression and stress were compared with performance on the task. The sample consisted of 56 participants (M=25.3 years), 30 women and 22 males, with the majority enrolled in fulltime higher education. The task consisted of five blocks with 100 stimuli in each block. The task was administered on a computer; upon completion of the task participants completed questionnaires measuring levels of burnout, anxiety and depression, as well as perceived stress. Raw scores on the task were calculated using a format comprised of both response times and number of errors. Data were analysed by comparing mean scores on the Stroop blocks using one-way repeated measures ANOVA. Additionally, median splits were undertaken on the scores on the questionnaires to enable between group comparisons using MANOVAs. The results showed no significant differences between high and low scores on the questionnaires and performance on the task. A Stroop interference effect was observed and there was a tendency that high exhausted participants performed worse than less exhausted participants. In conclusion the Modified Stroop Task offers some promise, although as of yet it cannot be assumed to be an accurate modification of an Emotional Stroop Task, due to limitations regarding the method; preliminary findings may serve as a pilot test for future research.

Social anxiety disorder is the third most common mental disorder with the lifetime prevalence rate of 13.3% in the US population. Typically, it causes significant impairment in a wide range of functioning and follows a chronic, unremitting course if untreated. Over the past two decades, there has been a dramatic increase in clinical research aimed at examining underlying mechanisms maintaining social anxiety. One line of research has investigated attentional biases in social anxiety, using various cognitive experiment paradigms, including the emotional Stroop and the modified dotprobe tasks. However, overall findings are equivocal about the nature of attentional biases in social anxiety and several methodological problems limit the interpretability of the data. The present study examined attentional biases associated with social anxiety using a new research paradigm in the field of anxiety disorders: the inattentional blindness paradigm. This paradigm presents a social cue in the absence of the subjects’ expectation while they are engaged in a cognitively demanding task, thereby enabling the more purely attentional aspect of information processing to be examined reducing the influence of potential response biases or effortful strategies. Two independent experiments were conducted using nonclinical student samples consisting of individuals high in social anxiety (HSAs) versus individuals low in social anxiety (LSAs) based on the static and sustained inattentional blindness tasks. Overall, results revealed that HSAs were more likely to detect or identify a socially-threatening cue, relative to LSAs; whereas LSAs were more likely to detect or identify a non-threatening social cue, relative to HSAs. These findings were observed only in the presence of a bogus-speech manipulation. These data suggest the promising utility of the inattentional blindness paradigm in investigating attentional biases in social anxiety and perhaps other psychopathological conditions. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed. / text

Increased attention towards threatening stimuli in both the external and internal environments is thought to be a factor in the causation and maintenance of pathological anxiety. Attentional biases for threatening information have been demonstrated in anxiety disorders, however the cortical mechanisms involved remain unclear. In this investigation, an Emotional Stroop task consisting of neutral, positive, depression-related and anxietyrelated words, was used to investigate attentional biases in 14 Panic Disorder patients and 32 psychiatrically healthy controls. The standard colour-word Stroop was also performed to determine whether any general cognitive deficits exist in Panic Disorder. Steady-state probe topography (SSPT), a brain electrical activity imaging methodology, was used to investigate participants' brain activity during performance of the tasks. It was hypothesised that Panic Disorder is associated with specific biases for disorder-specific information and thus patients would exhibit increased interference for anxiety-related words only, compared to neutral words. Mean reaction times for the Standard Stroop was similar for the two groups. For the Emotional Stroop task, neither group showed an interference effect for any emotional category. However, Panic Disorder patients performed the Emotional Stroop significantly more slowly than the Controls. The SSPT data suggest that the Standard and Emotional Stroop tasks are associated with different patterns of brain activity in the Control and Panic Disorder groups despite the similarities in the reaction time data. Specifically, the Standard Stroop was marked by strong temporo-parietal excitation in the Panic Disorder group only. In addition, anterior SSVEP patterns further differentiated between the Control and Panic Disorder groups. The most striking finding for the Emotional Stroop was strong sustained bilateral temporo-parieto-occipital excitation in the Panic Disorder group. In addition, a subgroup of the Controls exhibited increased interference for anxiety-related words and therefore the brain activity for this group and the remainder of Controls who did not show interference was analysed separately. It was found that the presence of interference for anxiety-related words was associated with right prefrontal inhibition prior to response. Other time-varying changes in the SSVEP further distinguished between the subgroup of Controls who showed an interference effect and those who did not.

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Hälso- och sjukvården befinner sig under ett allt större tryck av patienter som söker hjälp på grund av utmattningssyndrom. Kognitiva nedsättningar är en kärnkomponent i utmattningssyndrom och effektiva och korta screeninginstrument för att upptäcka dessa behövs för identifiera tillståndet tidigt. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att utveckla ett modifierat Symbol Digit Modalities Test. De totalt 90 deltagarna bestående av studenter delades in i två grupper efter självskattad utmattning. Tjugofyra individer identifierades i gruppen med låg utmattning och trettiofyra i gruppen med hög utmattning. De två grupperna jämfördes med prestation på testet. Testet bestod av tre block bestående av symboler, neutrala ord och hotfulla ord och vardera blocks testtid var 90 sekunder. Resultatet visade inga signifikanta skillnader mellan låg och hög utmattningsgrupp och prestation på testet. Däremot fanns signifikanta skillnader mellan blocken när samtliga deltagares prestation jämfördes. Det modifierade testet lyckas inte att differentiera mellan deltagare med låg och hög utmattning. Resultatet som visade att det fanns skillnader mellan blocken är intressant och visar på att det kan finnas en effekt av uppmärksamhetsvridning som framtida forskning kan bygga vidare på. / The Swedish healthcare system is under increasing pressure from patients seeking help due to fatigue syndrome. Cognitive impairments are a core symptom of the syndrome; effective screening tools to detect cognitive impairment related to fatigue are warranted to identify the condition. The aim of the present study was to develop a modified Symbol Digit Modalities. A total of 90 participants consisting of undergraduate students were divided into two groups after self-assessed fatigue. Twenty-four individuals were identified in the low fatigue group and thirty-four in the high fatigue group. The two groups’ test performance were compared. The test consisted of three blocks consisting of symbols, neutral words, and threat words; the duration of each test block was 90 seconds. The results showed no significant differences between low and high fatigue in terms of performance on the tests. However, there were significant differences across the blocks when comparing all participants' performance. The modified test failed to differentiate between low and high fatigue participants. The result indicating significant differences across the blocks is interesting and shows that there may be an effect of attentional bias that future research can build upon.

<p>Researchers have recently combined clinical and cognitive areas of research in order to investigate the role of cognitive factors in explaining how emotional disorders are developed and maintained. It is believed that biased cognitive processing of emotionally relevant information can greatly affect emotional responses and behaviour where insights into such cognitive processes can have invaluable clinical implications.</p><p>The present thesis investigates the role of cognitive biases for information related to food and body appearance in individuals with eating disorders (ED) and those with non-clinically eating disorder-related concerns (NED). Are ED characterised by cognitive biases toward such information related to their specific concerns? Are such cognitive biases specific to clinical ED or present also in NED samples? Are cognitive biases operating at both conscious and unconscious levels of cognitive processing?</p><p>The tasks used to pursue these questions were: the emotional Stroop task, an Internet version of the emotional Stroop, Jacoby’s white noise paradigm and a recognition task. The influence of priming on the emotional Stroop task was also investigated in order to test whether the use of this task could be extended to more complex investigations than selective attention.</p><p>Results provide support for that cognitive processing of information related to eating and body appearance is biased in individuals with ED. It is, however, unclear whether such biased processing is specific to clinical ED. Findings further suggest that cognitive biases occur primarily at unconscious levels of cognitive processing. Support was also obtained for that the emotional Stroop task is sensitive to priming where initial body perception may be one factor influencing cognitive responses toward negative self referent words following exposure to thin ideal images. Results further suggest that the emotional Stroop task successfully can be administered via the Internet where manipulating task delivery and response mode may increase the sensitivity of this task. Some of the advantages of administering the emotional Stroop task via Internet over traditional methods are access to more heterogeneous samples, more ecologically valid situations, reduced costs and minimisation of demand characteristics.</p>

Researchers have recently combined clinical and cognitive areas of research in order to investigate the role of cognitive factors in explaining how emotional disorders are developed and maintained. It is believed that biased cognitive processing of emotionally relevant information can greatly affect emotional responses and behaviour where insights into such cognitive processes can have invaluable clinical implications. The present thesis investigates the role of cognitive biases for information related to food and body appearance in individuals with eating disorders (ED) and those with non-clinically eating disorder-related concerns (NED). Are ED characterised by cognitive biases toward such information related to their specific concerns? Are such cognitive biases specific to clinical ED or present also in NED samples? Are cognitive biases operating at both conscious and unconscious levels of cognitive processing? The tasks used to pursue these questions were: the emotional Stroop task, an Internet version of the emotional Stroop, Jacoby’s white noise paradigm and a recognition task. The influence of priming on the emotional Stroop task was also investigated in order to test whether the use of this task could be extended to more complex investigations than selective attention. Results provide support for that cognitive processing of information related to eating and body appearance is biased in individuals with ED. It is, however, unclear whether such biased processing is specific to clinical ED. Findings further suggest that cognitive biases occur primarily at unconscious levels of cognitive processing. Support was also obtained for that the emotional Stroop task is sensitive to priming where initial body perception may be one factor influencing cognitive responses toward negative self referent words following exposure to thin ideal images. Results further suggest that the emotional Stroop task successfully can be administered via the Internet where manipulating task delivery and response mode may increase the sensitivity of this task. Some of the advantages of administering the emotional Stroop task via Internet over traditional methods are access to more heterogeneous samples, more ecologically valid situations, reduced costs and minimisation of demand characteristics.