Performance on the emotional stroop task in groups of anxious, expert, and control subjects: A comparison of computer and card presentation formats

Abstract

A number of information processing paradigms have been adapted from the cognitive psychology literature in order to investigate processing biases associated with emotional disorder. The most widely used of these methodologies has been the emotional Stroop task and this paper reports two experiments designed to examine some of the issues surrounding the application of this paradigm with groups of anxious subjects. Experiment 1 involved the use of a computer-presentation Stroop task with groups of high- and low-trait anxious subjects and a third group of 'expert' subjects to investigate the nature of the Stroop effect with a set of words related to their area of expertise. Experiment 2 reports the use of a card-presentation format with high- and low-trait anxious subjects. The results from the two methodologies show discrepancies which are broadly consistent with the previous literature on these two versions of the task. In addition, there was a highly significant Stroop effect associated with expertise. The theoretical and methodological implications of these data are discussed.