Using event-related potential and behavioural evidence to understand interpretation bias in relation to worry

Abstract The tendency to interpret ambiguous information in a consistent (e.g., negative) manner (interpretation bias) may maintain worry. This study explored whether high and low worriers generate different interpretations and examined at which stages of information processing these interpretations can occur. Participants completed interpretation assessment tasks yielding behavioural and N400 event-related potential indices, which index whether a given interpretation was generated. High worriers lacked the benign interpretation bias found in low worriers. This was evident for early “online” interpretations (reflected in reaction times to relatedness judgments and lexical decisions, as well as at a neurophysiological level, N400, for lexical decisions only), to later “offline” interpretations (observed at a behavioural level on the scenario task and recognition task) when participants had time for reflection. Results suggest that a benign interpretation bias may be a protective factor for low worriers, and that these interpretations remain active across online and offline stages of processing.