Trait Anxiety and Biased Prospective Memory for Targets Associated with Negative Future Events

Notebaert, Lies; Jones, Eleanor; Clarke, Patrick; MacLeod, Colin · 2018 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1007/s10608-018-9986-6

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Summary

This study investigates whether elevated trait anxiety is associated with a bias in prospective memory, specifically regarding targets linked to negative future events. While cognitive models suggest that anxious individuals prioritize processing negative information, empirical evidence for retrospective memory biases remains inconsistent. The authors hypothesized that because anxiety is future-oriented, high trait-anxious individuals might exhibit enhanced prospective memory for cues signaling negative outcomes compared to benign ones. Two studies were conducted using a prospective memory paradigm embedded within a lexical-decision task. Participants, categorized as high or low in trait anxiety based on Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory scores, classified letter strings as words or non-words. Embedded targets required an alternative response and were associated with either a negative future event (an aversive noise burst), a benign future event (a small monetary gain), or no future event (Study 1 only). In Study 1, 51 participants completed the task with three target types. Study 2 replicated the design with 58 participants, omitting the neutral category and increasing the number of negative and benign targets to enhance sensitivity. The results from both studies failed to support the hypothesis. In Study 1, there were no significant main effects of anxiety group or target type, nor any interaction between them. Bayesian analysis provided strong evidence for the null hypothesis. Study 2 found a significant main effect of target type, with higher accuracy for benign targets than negative targets, but again showed no significant effect of anxiety group or interaction between anxiety and target type. Across both studies, there was no correlation between trait anxiety scores and prospective memory accuracy for either negative or benign targets. These findings indicate that heightened trait anxiety does not lead to biased prospective memory for targets associated with negative future events. The results align with the broader literature suggesting a lack of consistent anxiety-linked biases in memory processes, extending this conclusion to prospective memory with valenced future implications. The study demonstrates that despite theoretical predictions that anxiety enhances monitoring for future dangers, high trait-anxious individuals do not show superior prospective memory performance for negative cues compared to low trait-anxious individuals.

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• prospective memory interruptions