Selective memory effects in agoraphobic patients

Two experiments tested the view that agoraphobic patients would show superior recall for phobic-related material relative to neutral material. In Expt 1, subjects were required to recall a series of five passages; three contained potentially phobic information and two contained neutral information. The results showed that phobic patients recalled more propositions from the phobic passages than did controls. In Expt 2, subjects completed four study-test trials with a list of 20 words: 10 phobic words and 10 neutral words. The results showed that the patients recalled more phobic than neutral words while the reverse was the case for controls. The results are discussed in terms of the cognitive organization of phobic patients and are related to Beck & Rush's proposal that phobics have a cognitive organization of situations labelled as dangerous. The possible sources of these selective memory effects are also considered.