Citation

Elwood LS, Williams NL, Olatunji BO, Lohr JM. J. Anxiety Disord. 2007; 21(4): 554-567.

Affiliation

University of Arkansas, 216 Memorial Hall, Fayetteville, AR 72701, United States. lelwood@uark.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.janxdis.2006.08.006

PMID

16963221

Abstract

Previous studies examining information processing in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have focused on attention and memory biases, with few studies examining interpretive biases. The majority of these studies have employed lexically based methodologies, rather than examining the processing of visual information. In the present study, victims (N=40) and non-victims (N=41) of interpersonal trauma viewed a series of short positive, neutral, and threatening filmstrips of social situations with ambiguous endings. Participants were then asked about their perceptions and interpretations of the situations. Victims perceived threatening situations as more predictable and more quickly increasing in risk than non-victims. Trauma status interacted with the perceived predictability of positive situations and the perceived speed with which neutral situations reached their conclusion to predict anxious symptoms. In addition, trauma status interacted with the perceived increase in risk of positive situations to predict PTSD symptoms. The implications of these findings for theories of PTSD are discussed.

Language: en