Yeung Ryan C, Fernandes Myra A
Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2019 Mar;194:69-76. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2019.01.015. Epub 2019 Feb 16.
Past research is mixed regarding the conditions under which memory biases emerge in individuals with high levels of social anxiety. The current study examined whether high social anxiety would be associated with a memory bias for threatening, but task-irrelevant information, or whether it creates a memory bias for both threatening as well as neutral distractors. 60 undergraduate students were recruited, half classified as having high social anxiety and half as having low social anxiety according to the Social Phobia Inventory. Participants memorized a series of sequentially and visually presented target words that were either all neutral (e.g., patient) or all socially threatening (e.g., embarrassed). Simultaneously during encoding, participants also saw a distractor word on each trial that was either neutral or socially threatening. Memory for targets was then assessed using a recall and recognition test. Incidental recall and recognition tests for the distractors were also administered. There were no group differences in memory for threat versus neutral targets. However, recognition of socially threatening distractors was significantly enhanced in those with high relative to low levels of social anxiety, but only when targets were also socially threatening. Memory biases in high social anxiety were shown to be specific for threat-related distractors rather than general, for all distractors. This specific bias for threat emerged only when the to-be-remembered target information was also threatening. Findings suggest that when social anxiety is primed, attention to irrelevant, but socially threatening, information is heightened.
过去的研究对于社交焦虑水平较高的个体在何种情况下会出现记忆偏差的看法不一。当前的研究考察了高社交焦虑是否会与对具有威胁性但与任务无关的信息产生记忆偏差相关，或者它是否会对具有威胁性的以及中性的干扰信息都产生记忆偏差。招募了60名本科生，根据社交恐惧症量表，其中一半被归类为具有高社交焦虑，另一半为低社交焦虑。参与者记忆了一系列依次以视觉方式呈现的目标词，这些目标词要么全是中性的（例如“病人”），要么全是具有社交威胁性的（例如“尴尬的”）。在编码过程中，参与者在每次试验中还会看到一个干扰词，该干扰词要么是中性的，要么是具有社交威胁性的。然后使用回忆和识别测试来评估对目标的记忆。还对干扰词进行了附带的回忆和识别测试。在对威胁性目标与中性目标的记忆方面，两组没有差异。然而，相对于低社交焦虑水平的人，高社交焦虑水平的人对具有社交威胁性的干扰词的识别显著增强，但仅当目标词也具有社交威胁性时才会如此。结果表明，高社交焦虑中的记忆偏差是针对与威胁相关的干扰词的，而不是针对所有干扰词的一般性偏差。这种对威胁的特定偏差仅在要记忆的目标信息也具有威胁性时才会出现。研究结果表明，当社交焦虑被激发时，对无关但具有社交威胁性的信息的关注度会提高。
