Memory bias does not generalize across anxiety disorders

Panic disorder and perceived parental rearing behavior investigated by the Japanese version of the EMBU scale

“…Second, there is the possibility that the EMBU, as a self-reporting scale, may be demonstrating the distorted perceptions of individuals prone to severe anticipatory anxiety or phobic avoidance, who only perceive their parents' rearing styles differently than do control subjects. Amir et al [1996] reported that there was a memory bias toward threat in patients with panic disorder, and Cloitre et al [1995] showed that this bias was a feature specific to panic disorder and not generalized across the range of anxiety disorders. Rosenberg et al [1997], however, found that such a memory bias was not dominant in issues related to the distant past childhood; thus, it remains unclear whether long-term memory of parental rearing practices assessed by means of the EMBU are biased by the present psychopathology of PD patients.…”

Identity and expression memory for happy and angry faces in social anxiety

“…On the other hand, the existence of a memory bias has received mixed support in research. Several studies have failed to find an explicit memory bias both in social phobics (Cloitre, Cancienne, Heimberg, Holt, &Liebowitz, 1995;Lundh & Öst, 1997;Rapee, McCallum, Melville, Ravenscroft, & Rodney, 1994) and in non-clinical individuals high in social anxiety (Foa, McNally, & Murdock, 1989;Sanz, 1996). In contrast, other studies have found that non-clinical individuals high in social anxiety tend to recall more negative words than individuals low in social anxiety (Breck & Smith, 1983;O'Banion & Arkowitz, 1977).…”

Memory for Physiological Feedback in Social Anxiety Disorder: The Role of Fear of Bodily Sensations

“…(Mattick and Clarke 1998) b Social interaction anxiety scale (Mattick and Clarke 1998) c Beck depression inventory-II (Beck et al 1996) d Body sensations questionnaire (Chambless et al 1984) These results suggest that a memory bias for increasing arousal is not specific to social anxiety. Other studies have also found that all participants, regardless of social anxiety level, show enhanced memory for social threat words (Rapee et al 1994) or affectively valenced words (Cloitre et al 1995). One possible explanation for these findings is that processes implicated in social anxiety, such as selffocused attention, are activated in most individuals when anxiety increases in social situations.…”

“…Studies with positive findings have used self-referent stimuli (Breck and Smith 1983;O'Banion and Arkowitz 1977;Smith et al 1983), whereas most with negative findings have used general social threat stimuli (Cloitre et al 1995;Foa et al 1989;Rapee et al 1994). Null findings for a memory bias in social anxiety for external social threat combined with research finding evidence for memory biases for self-referent information suggest that memory biases in social anxiety may be for information about the self in social situations.…”

“…However, most studies using social threat word stimuli have been unsuccessful in detecting memory biases in SAD (Cloitre et al 1995;Foa et al 1989;Rapee et al 1994). The few studies which have found evidence for a memory bias in social anxiety have done so for negative public self-referent information (O'Banion and Arkowitz 1977), particularly under conditions of social evaluation (Breck and Smith 1983;Smith et al 1983).…”