Recognition bias for critical faces in social phobics

Social phobics were compared with normal controls on a task of face recognition. The subjects were presented with 20 photos, and were required to judge whether the persons on the photos were critical or accepting; five minutes later they were unexpectedly presented with a recognition task. The social phobics recognized more of the critical than the accepting faces, whereas the controls tended to recognize more accepting than critical faces. The results are discussed in terms of a possible recognition bias or response bias, and in terms of differences in the encoding activities of the subjects. It is also argued that research on memory in emotional disorders should make more use of concrete non-verbal stimuli (like faces) in the future, since subjects' encoding activities are more amenable to experimental control with such stimuli than with verbal stimuli. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd