Cognitive bias via Internet: A comparison of Web based and standard emotional Stroop tasks in social phobia

There is accumulating evidence to suggest that social phobia is associated with attentional bias for words related to social threat. Information processing in individuals with social phobia (N=87) was investigated in the present study using two versions of the emotional Stroop task. Results from a standard emotional Stroop task indicated delayed color naming of socially threatening words relative to neutral words, in line with previous research, whereas results from a Web based emotional Stroop task indicated an facilitation effect, with faster manual indication of color choice for neutral words than for socially threatening words. Possible explanations for these contrasting findings and issues for further research are discussed. There is accumulating evidence to suggest that social phobia is associated with attentional bias for words related to social threat. Information processing in individuals with social phobia (N=87) was investigated in the present study using two versions of the emotional Stroop task.

Results from a standard emotional Stroop task indicated delayed color naming of socially threatening words relative to neutral words, in line with previous research, whereas results from a Web based emotional Stroop task indicated an facilitation effect, with faster manual indication of color choice for neutral words than for socially threatening words. Possible explanations for these contrasting findings and issues for further research are discussed.