Mood congruent memory bias of individuals with depressed mood and anxiety

Fifteen individuals with clinically significant levels of both depressed mood and anxiety were compared with
20 demographically similar controls on implicit and explicit memory tests for recall of negative, physically
threatening, socially threatening, positive and neutral word stimuli. Compared with the control group, the
depressed and anxious group remembered more negative and socially threatening words and fewer positive
words in both the implicit and explicit memory conditions. They also recalled more physically threatening
words in the implicit memory test. These findings lend partial support to Williams et al.'s (1997) integrative
multilevel theory of mood and memory.