Using event-related potential and behavioural evidence to understand interpretation bias in relation to worry

Ya-Chun Feng; Charlotte Krahe; Alexander Sumich; Frances Meeten; Jennifer Y. F. Lau; Colette R. Hirsch

doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.107746

Using event-related potential and behavioural evidence to understand interpretation bias in relation to worry

Ya-Chun Feng, Charlotte Krahe, Alexander Sumich, Frances Meeten, Jennifer Y. F. Lau, Colette R. Hirsch

Nottingham Trent University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

The tendency of interpreting ambiguous information in a consistent (e.g. negative) manner (interpretation bias) may maintain worry. This study explored whether high and low worriers generate different interpretations and examined at which stages of information processing these interpretations can occur. Participants completed interpretation assessment tasks yielding behavioural and N400 event-related potential indices, which index whether a given interpretation was generated. High worriers lacked the benign interpretation bias found in low worriers. This was evident for early “online” interpretations (reflected in reaction times to relatedness judgments and lexical decisions, as well as at a neurophysiological level, N400, for lexical decisions only), to later “offline” interpretations (observed at a behavioural level on the scenario task and recognition task) when participants had time for reflection. Results suggest that a benign interpretation bias may be a protective factor for low worriers, and that these interpretations remain active across online and offline stages of processing.

Original language	English
Article number	107746
Journal	Biological Psychology
Volume	148
Early online date	27 Aug 2019
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.107746
Publication status	Published - 1 Nov 2019

Keywords

Interpretation bias
N400
Offline interpretation
Online interpretation
Worry

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10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.107746

Using event-related potential_FENG_Accepted16August2019_GREEN AAM (CC BY NC ND)Accepted author manuscript, 1.84 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

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abstract = "The tendency of interpreting ambiguous information in a consistent (e.g. negative) manner (interpretation bias) may maintain worry. This study explored whether high and low worriers generate different interpretations and examined at which stages of information processing these interpretations can occur. Participants completed interpretation assessment tasks yielding behavioural and N400 event-related potential indices, which index whether a given interpretation was generated. High worriers lacked the benign interpretation bias found in low worriers. This was evident for early “online” interpretations (reflected in reaction times to relatedness judgments and lexical decisions, as well as at a neurophysiological level, N400, for lexical decisions only), to later “offline” interpretations (observed at a behavioural level on the scenario task and recognition task) when participants had time for reflection. Results suggest that a benign interpretation bias may be a protective factor for low worriers, and that these interpretations remain active across online and offline stages of processing.",

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AU - Feng, Ya-Chun

AU - Krahe, Charlotte

AU - Sumich, Alexander

AU - Meeten, Frances

AU - Lau, Jennifer Y. F.

AU - Hirsch, Colette R.

PY - 2019/11/1

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AB - The tendency of interpreting ambiguous information in a consistent (e.g. negative) manner (interpretation bias) may maintain worry. This study explored whether high and low worriers generate different interpretations and examined at which stages of information processing these interpretations can occur. Participants completed interpretation assessment tasks yielding behavioural and N400 event-related potential indices, which index whether a given interpretation was generated. High worriers lacked the benign interpretation bias found in low worriers. This was evident for early “online” interpretations (reflected in reaction times to relatedness judgments and lexical decisions, as well as at a neurophysiological level, N400, for lexical decisions only), to later “offline” interpretations (observed at a behavioural level on the scenario task and recognition task) when participants had time for reflection. Results suggest that a benign interpretation bias may be a protective factor for low worriers, and that these interpretations remain active across online and offline stages of processing.

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Using event-related potential and behavioural evidence to understand interpretation bias in relation to worry

Abstract

Keywords

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