Worry : cognitive and autonomic processes

This review discusses some core features of worry and evaluates the relevant empirical studies. The discussion focuses on two features of worry: 1) the selective processing of threat-related cues as part of the profile of worriers; and 2) autonomic rigidity during worry. The selective processing of threat-cues has been investigated with a variety of attention and memory paradigms, with the attention paradigms yielding greater support. However, the conceptual difficulty of separating attentional activity from memory activity has presented problems with inferring specifically an attention or a memory bias to threat-related cues in worriers. Studies which have purported to demonstrate autonomic rigidity during worry contain individual methodological problems. It is concluded that a major issue that applied to many of these studies was the ecological validity of instructing subjects to worry on command in a laboratory environment. The major theoretical framework encompassing these features is also presented to explain the functional nature of worry.