Memory Biases in Social Anxiety and Depression

Abstract

This study investigated selective processing of emotional information in social anxiety and depression using a self-referent recall task. Depressed, socially anxious, and normal subjects completed this task to assess potential recall biases toward carefully selected trait adjectives varying along the dimensions of valence (positive vs. negative) and content (depressive, socially anxious, both depressive and socially anxious, and both depression- and social anxiety-irrelevant). Depressed subjects showed an equivalent recall of negative and positive information, whereas socially anxious and normal subjects showed a positive recall bias. Results are discussed in the light of Beck's and Williams et al.'s theories about cognitive differences between anxiety and depression.