Memory bias for threatening information related to anxiety: an updated meta-analytic review

ABSTRACT

The evidence for an anxiety-related memory bias is contradictory. We compiled 171 articles published until October 2016 including a group with clinical or subclinical anxiety and a control group in tasks involving implicit or explicit memory using threatening stimuli. There was an anxiety-related memory bias in free recall tasks, but it was not observed in another memory task. The between-groups differences showed that the anxious group recalled more threatening stimuli than the control group (d = 0.321). When we compared the group differences (anxious vs. control participants) in the within-groups effect (threatening vs. neutral stimuli), a moderate effect size emerged (d_bw = 0.714). This anxiety-related memory bias was observed with shallow processing, that is consistent with attentional biases related to anxiety. There was also evidence that high-anxious persons recall fewer positive stimuli. Future research is needed to investigate whether this result is a memory or encoding bias and explore other moderator variables.

KEYWORDS:

• Cognitive biases
• memory bias
• anxiety disorders
• trait anxiety
• meta-analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Sara Herrera http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8612-4906

Ignacio Montorio http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6113-4921

Isabel Cabrera http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8362-764X

Juan Botella http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8633-4981

Notes

1 Among the studies included, there are outlier effect sizes that could be increasing the combined effect size (the studies of Johnson, Craske & Aikins, 2008; Russo, Fox, Bellinger, & Nguyen-Van-Tam, 2001; Russo et al., 2006). When these outliers are excluded from the analysis, the effect size is still significant (d = 0.21, 95% CI [0.12, 0.29]).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Plan for Scientific Research, Development and Technological Innovation 2008-2011, Ministry of Science and Innovation (Spain) 2008–2011, Ministry of Science and Innovation (Spain) [grant number PSI2008-02338/PSIC], [grant number PSI2012-36546]; and MINECO (Spain) Excellence Network PROMOSAM [grant number PSI2014-56303-REDT], Excellence Network PROMOSAM. Research on Processes, Mechanisms and Psychological Treatment for the Promotion of Mental Health.