Acutely induced anxiety increases negative interpretations of events in a closed-circuit television monitoring task |
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| Authors: | Robbie Cooper Christina J. Howard Angela S. Attwood Rachel Stirland Viviane Rostant Lynne Renton |
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| Affiliation: | 1. School of Life, Sport and Social Sciences , Edinburgh Napier University , Edinburgh , UK;2. Division of Psychology , Nottingham Trent University , Burton Street, Nottingham , UK;3. School of Experimental Psychology , University of Bristol , Bristol , UK |
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| Abstract: | In two experiments we measured the effects of 7.5% CO2 inhalation on the interpretation of video footage recorded on closed circuit television (CCTV). As predicted, inhalation of 7.5% CO2 was associated with increases in physiological and subjective correlates of anxiety compared with inhalation of medical air (placebo). Importantly, when in the 7.5% CO2 condition, participants reported the increased presence of suspicious activity compared with placebo (Experiment 1), a finding that was replicated and extended (Experiment 2) with no concomitant increase in the reporting of the presence of positive activity. These findings support previous work on interpretative bias in anxiety but are novel in terms of how the anxiety was elicited, the nature of the interpretative bias, and the ecological validity of the task. |
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| Keywords: | Emotions Monitoring Response bias |
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