A Cognitive-experimental Study of Dynamic Mental Representations of Threat in Snake Phobias

Representational momentum bias is a dynamic mental process whereby recognition memory is distorted in the direction of the implied motion of a sequence of images. Based on the looming vulnerability model of anxiety, phobic participants were predicted to demonstrate greater degrees of representational momentum bias, especially for threatening stimuli. High snake fear ( N = 41) and low snake fear (N = 41) participants viewed static images of threatening or neutral stimuli with implied approaching motion and determined whether a fourth image was the same or different than the preceding image. Contrary to predictions, there were no differences between high and low snake fear participants in representational momentum. There was a significant bias in the direction opposite implied motion for snake images. Potential reasons for this finding are explored and methodological limitations preventing a clear demonstration of representational momentum bias are discussed.