Implicit memory for negative and positive social information in individuals with and without social anxiety.

Studies of memory bias for threat-relevant information in individuals with social anxiety have produced mixed results. These discrepancies may be because investigators have studied different memory processes or have used different memory tasks. We employed a video clarity judgement task to investigate implicit (capacity-free, automatic, unconscious) memory and a recognition task to investigate explicit (effortful, strategic, conscious) memory for threat in socially anxious individuals and nonanxious controls.