Memory for Threat-relevant and Threat-irrelevant Cues in Spider Phobics

Abstract

This study investigated whether confronting phobic individuals with their feared object provides a laboratory approach for studying the effects of high emotion levels on memory for central (threat-relevant) and peripheral (threat-irrelevant) information. Twenty-two spider-phobic and 24 low-fear control subjects were exposed to one of two versions of a bulletin board to which central (spiders) and peripheral (babies and pens) stimuli were attached. During exposure to the stimuli, spider phobics displayed an increase in electrodermal activity. The results of a subsequent free-recall test indicate that relative to controls, spider phobics showed enhanced memory for central information and impaired memory for peripheral information. The free-recall data are consistent with an interpretation in terms of the attentional-narrowing hypothesis of emotional memory.