Abstract
Cognitive bias, such as attentional bias and memory bias for threat information, has been observed in persons who report an anxious mood. Previous studies have reported that state anxiety tends to influence attentional basis, whereas trait anxiety influences memory bias. The present study aimed to investigate the influence of trait anxiety and state anxiety on attentional bias and implicit memory bias. Anxious mood was manipulated through an avoidance task with aversive sounds. Non-clinical volunteers (15 high on trait anxiety, and 15 low) performed a dot-probe detection task for measuring attention bias, and a word completion task for measuring memory bias. High trait anxiety participants showed attentional bias toward threat information, regardless of the level of their state anxiety, and showed implicit memory bias in the high-anxious situation. Low trait anxiety participants showed only attentional bias, and only in the high anxious situation. These findings suggest that in an anxious mood, attentional bias has priority over memory bias.
