The effects of mood manipulation and trait anxiety on susceptibility to distraction

Edmund Keogh; Christopher C. French

doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(96)00211-5

The effects of mood manipulation and trait anxiety on susceptibility to distraction

Edmund Keogh, Christopher C. French

Goldsmiths, University of London

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

7 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

Eysenck (1992) argues that high trait-anxious subjects are more likely to show a general susceptibility to distraction in anxious mood states, especially if the distracting material resembles the task stimuli. Unfortunately there is little direct evidence that supports this view. The present experiment therefore attempted to test Eysenck's proposition by modifying a test of distractibility for letters on a letter-transformation task, as originally devised by Eysenck and Graydon (1989), to incorporate a mood manipulation. Although high trait-anxious subjects were found to be generally more impaired than controls by the mood manipulation, they did not display greater susceptibility to distraction from task-similar material. These results are discussed in relation to current theoretical models of anxiety and cognitive processing.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	141-149
Number of pages	9
Journal	Personality and Individual Differences
Volume	22
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(96)00211-5
Publication status	Published - 1 Feb 1997

Funding

Acknowledgements-The authorsar e grateful to Anne Richards. Sophie Kaye, and an anonymous reviewer for extremely helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. This research was supported by a studentship awarded to the first author by the Economic and Social Research Council of Great Britain.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Psychology

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10.1016/S0191-8869(96)00211-5

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The effects of mood manipulation and trait anxiety on susceptibility to distraction

Abstract

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