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Updated: May 15, 2025
The Emotional Stroop Task: Assessing Cognitive Performance under Exposure to Emotional Content
Published on: June 29, 2016
Sex differences in the association between error-related negativity and harm avoidance during emotional Stroop task
Yi-Mei Wang1, Ming-Kai Pan2, Wei-Lieh Huang3
1Cerebellar Research Center, National Taiwan University Hospital Yunlin Branch, Yunlin, Taiwan.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between personality trait harm avoidance and error-related negativity (ERN), emotional Stroop task performances, and to analyze whether sex could serve as a moderator between them.
Methods:
A total of 40 healthy adults (17 men, 23 women) were included in this study. Personality scores, the accuracy and reaction time of the emotional Stroop task, and ERN at FCz were compared between sexes. The interrelationships of these data were analyzed through correlation and regression analyses, considering sex separately and the interaction of sex with harm avoidance in these analyses.
Results:
In multiple linear regression analysis, the interaction item of sex and harm avoidance showed a significant association with ERN when considering all participants. In men, harm avoidance had significant associations with ERN, accuracy and reaction time of the emotional Stroop task. However, in women, associations of harm avoidance with ERN and emotional Stroop task performances were not significant.
Conclusion:
ERN could be observed through the emotional Stroop task. The significant relationships between harm avoidance and ERN, harm avoidance and emotional Stroop task performances were only established in men. ERN, the emotional Stroop task, and harm avoidance are all associated with internalizing disorders; they can be linked according to the findings.
