Stroop interference for threat: Pathognomonic or perfectly normal?

Two experiments using a modified Stroop procedure demonstrated that people without anxiety disorders exhibited slowed color-naming responses (interference) for words that were important to them. In Experiment 1, sailors showed interference for sailing-related words and lacrosse players showed interference for lacrosse-related words. In Experiment 2, surgical residents showed interference for HIV-related words demonstrating that feared stimuli can cause Stroop interference in healthy controls. These results suggest that anxious patients' well-established slowed responses' for anxiety-related words on the Stroop task do not stem from cognitive-processing bias resulting from their emotional state as has been suggested (McNally, 1994; Mathews and MackIntosh, 1998). Instead, the Stroop interference, found for anxiety-related material in anxious patients, reflects the general tendency for people to take longer to color-name personally-relevant information as proposed by Riemann (1993).