Mnemonic discrimination and social anxiety: the role of state anxiety

The Mnemonic Similarity Task (MST) measures mnemonic discrimination, or the ability to correctly identify new stimuli from highly similar, old stimuli. Poor mnemonic discrimination is a potential risk or maintenance factor for anxiety, and recent studies suggest state affect may moderate relations between mnemonic discrimination and trait anxiety. No studies have evaluated mnemonic discrimination in specific subtypes of anxiety or with clinically relevant stressors. This preregistered study evaluated the role of social anxiety and the anticipation of a future speech on MST performance. Participants with high (n = 66) and low (n = 64) levels of social anxiety were randomly assigned to a stressor condition or a control condition prior to the MST. State anxiety was measured throughout the study. Results did not indicate significant effects of trait (high vs. low social anxiety) or state anxiety (stressor condition vs. control condition) on mnemonic discrimination. Results are compared with previous research and implications and future directions are discussed.