Intrusive cognitions: An investigation of the emotional Stroop task.

The role of intrusive cognitions was investigated using the emotional Stroop effect, in which irrelevant threat-related words interfered more with color naming than neutral words. In Experiment 1, the emotional Stroop effect decreased over blocks, indicating habituation. In Experiment 2, the interference persisted when different words were used in each block, suggesting that the habituation occurred at the level of the individual stimulus. However, there was some evidence for a decline in interference, suggesting some category-based habituation. In Experiment 3, the interference continued for emotional words relative to neutral words even when the neutral stimuli formed a category. In Experiment 4, neutral words were contrasted with positive and negative words; interference occurred only for the negative words. This result undermines alternative interpretations in terms of emotionality or self-relevance and highlights the critical role of threat.