Using event-related potential and behavioural evidence to understand interpretation bias in relation to worry

Feng, Y-C, Krahé, C, Sumich, A ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4333-8442, Meeten, F, Lau, JYF and Hirsch, CR, 2019. Using event-related potential and behavioural evidence to understand interpretation bias in relation to worry. Biological Psychology, 148: 107746. ISSN 0301-0511

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Abstract

Worry is a common experience, thought to be maintained by the tendency of interpreting ambiguous information in a consistent (e.g. negative) manner, termed “interpretation bias”. This study explored whether high worriers (Penn State Worry Questionnaire score, PSWQ ≧ 56) and low worriers (PSWQ score ≦ 39) show different interpretation biases, and examined at which stages of information processing these interpretation biases occur. Participants with high and low worry levels completed interpretation assessment tasks yielding behavioural and event-related potential indices. We focused on the N400 component, reflecting whether given interpretations were in line with or violated participants' own interpretations. We found that high worriers lack the benign interpretation bias found in low worriers from the early "online" interpretative stage, reflected by the reaction time in a relatedness judgment task and the N400 in a lexical decision task, to the later "offline" stage at which participants had time for reflection. Our results suggest that a benign interpretation bias may be a protective factor in relation to worry and is likely to remain active across online and offline stages of interpretation processing.

Item Type:	Journal article
Alternative Title:	Interpretation bias in relation to worry [running head]
Publication Title:	Biological Psychology
Creators:	Feng, Y.-C., Krahé, C., Sumich, A., Meeten, F., Lau, J.Y.F. and Hirsch, C.R.
Publisher:	Elsevier
Date:	November 2019
Volume:	148
ISSN:	0301-0511
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.107746 DOI S0301051118306653 Publisher Item Identifier 1116915 Other
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	06 Sep 2019 08:57
Last Modified:	31 May 2021 15:14
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/37581

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