Cognitive bias in spider fear and control children: Assessment of emotional interference by a card format and a single-trial format of the Stroop task

The aim of the study was to clarify whether fear in children is related to a distorted cognitive processing of fear-related information. In anxious children, only a few studies of this bias were performed which yielded inconsistent results. Martin, Herder, and Jones (1992. Cognition and Emotion, 6(6), 479-486) found a bias for spider words in spider-fear children, using a card format of the Stroop task. However, by using a single-trial format of the Stroop task, we previously found that both anxious and control children favored the processing of threatening information (Kindt, Brosschot, & Everaerd, 1997. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 64, 79-97). In the present study, we administered both a card format and a single-trial format of the Stroop task to spider-fear and control children. In line with our previous results, a bias for spider words was observed in spider fear but also in control children, regardless of the format used. Furthermore, the processing biases assessed by the two formats did not correlate, which suggests that they measure different mechanisms and/or that one or both mechanisms are unstable. It is speculated that certain cognitive developmental deficits in regulating emotions may be a vulnerability factor in the etiology of anxiety disorders. (C) 1997 Academic Press.