Components of Negative Emotion and Emotion-Congruent Information Processing Biases

Negative emotion is often associated with emotion-congruent biases in information processing. However, rather than all negative emotion being associated with biases in all information processes, certain components of emotion appear to be associated with specific biases. This project examined two examples of specific associations. First, Williams, Watts, MacLeod, & Mathews (1988, 1997) have argued that anxiety is associated with biases on tasks involving priming, and depression is associated with biases on tasks involving elaboration. Second, most models of mood-congruent bias have given purely cognitive explanations; these models suggest that biases should be more closely associated with the cognitive symptoms than the somatic symptoms of depression (Horowitz, Nelson, & Person, 1997). Evidence is reviewed that suggests this may not be the case. These issues were examined in two experiments, each of which administered a broad range of tasks to a large sample of students. The experiments examined attention and judgement, and explicit, implicit, and autobiographical memory. It was hypothesised that Williams et al.'s (1988, 1997) predictions about the task-specific effects of anxiety and depression would be confirmed, and that the somatic symptoms of depression would have a greater influence on information processing biases than the cognitive symptoms. Emotion-congruent biases were not shown on every task, but on the tasks where biases were shown, the hypotheses were broadly confirmed. Strengths, limitations, and implications of the studies are discussed. Current cognitive and neuropsychological models of emotion are used to provide a possible explanation of the results.