Would the abstract help?
Suppression of emotional Stroop effects by fear-arousal.
Mathews, Andrew M.; Sebastian, ShannonCognition and Emotion. Vol 7(6), Nov 1993, 517-530.Previous studies (e.g., M. Martin et al [see PA, Vol 78:24465]) have suggested that Ss are slower to color-name emotional words, when the meaning of these words is related to a fear or current concern. Three experiments were carried out on a total of 112 undergraduates having either high or low fear of snakes, with the aim of replicating this finding, and of testing the effects of arousing fear in Ss at the same time. Unexpectedly, the predicted interference effect was only replicated in the absence of threat, whether due to a snake or to another threatening stimulus. It is concluded that emotional interference effects do depend on high levels of fearfulness or trait anxiety, and on a match between the content of the Ss' concerns and the meaning of the interfering material. However, this interference may be paradoxically obscured by fear arousal, or the presence of a real danger that alters processing priorities in highly fearful Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
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