The emotional Stroop task and posttraumatic stress disorder: A meta-analysis
Section snippets
The emotional Stroop task
The classic Stroop task (Stroop, 1935) displays color words (e.g., blue) in varying colors of ink (e.g., red). The participant is asked to ignore the semantic content of the word and name the color in which the word is displayed. The critical trials are when the color is incongruent with the semantic word (e.g., the word ‘blue’ displayed in green ink). This manipulation induces conflict between task-relevant stimuli (the color) and distracting stimuli (the semantic content). The Stroop task can
PTSD and the emotional Stroop task
Despite the wealth of research conducted on the EST effect in PTSD over the past 20 years, there remain two gaps in the literature. First, whether an EST effect exists at all in PTSD has recently been questioned (Kimble, Frueh, & Marks, 2009) due to the inconsistencies in demonstrating the general effect (i.e., slowed RTs for disorder-relevant words relative to neutral words; e.g., Devineni, Blanchard, Hickling, & Buckley, 2004). Kimble et al. (2009) argued that dissertations tend to produce
Selection of studies
We identified appropriate studies by conducting searches in the PsychINFO database and searching the reference sections of review articles on this topic (Bar-Haim et al., 2007, Buckley et al., 2000). To address the possible publication bias suggested by Kimble et al. (2009), we also included the dissertations pertaining to PTSD and the EST that these authors located as well as additional dissertations identified through searches of the PsychINFO database. We conducted searches using a PTSD term
Basic study information
The meta-analysis included 26 studies. The studies were published between 1990 and 2007, and included a total of 538 PTSD participants, 254 no trauma control participants, and 276 trauma control participants. Mean age for the PTSD, no trauma control, and trauma control samples were 36.3 (SD = 10.8), 28.1 (SD = 8.5), and 35.4 (SD = 11.5), respectively. The groups were predominantly female, with percentages of 51, 79, and 58, respectively, for PTSD, no trauma control, and trauma control groups. While
Discussion
PTSD is associated with low quality of life (Olatunji, Cisler, & Tolin, 2007) and significant psychosocial impairment (Amaya-Jackson et al., 1999, Breslau, 2001, Breslau et al., 1991, Kessler, 2000). Research has used the EST as one means of elucidating some of the core deficits associated with PTSD (Buckley et al., 2000, ⁎McNally et al., 1990). Whether an EST effect exists at all in PTSD has been questioned (Kimble et al., 2009), necessitating a quantitative review to examine the EST effect in
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indicates an article included in the meta-analysis.