Ängstlichkeit und die Verarbeitung selbstbezogener Information

Investigates the influence of semantic structure on processing self-related information and its dependency on anxiety. 82 psychology students were divided into high and low anxiety groups. They had to judge and recall 48 adjectives from various categories (aggression, activity, happiness, anxiety) according to self- or word-related instructions. Judgment, decision time, and free recall performance were recorded. In general, memory performance improved with self-related instructions. High anxiety subjects were faster when anxiety and happiness were judged with reference to themselves. However, their memory performance tended to be poorer than that of low anxiety subjects. It was also found that high anxiety subjects reproduced a larger number of anxiety items that applied to themselves.