Hemisphere preference, anxiety, and covariation bias

In Study I, normal subjects (N = 70) completed the Preference Test (PT), the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Anxiety Sensitivity Index. Subjects with a preference for a right hemisphere thinking style (as indexed by PT) were found to have higher state anxiety and anxiety sensitivity scores than subjects with a left hemisphere thinking style. This finding is in line with the suggestion that the right hemisphere is involved in the development and maintenance of anxiety. Study II explored whether the relationship between right hemisphere preference and anxiety may result from the different cognitive characteristics that are attributed to the two hemispheres. It might well be that cognitive biases that are thought to maintain or exaggerate anxiety states (e.g. covariation bias), emerge from a right hemisphere mode of information processing. Therefore, it was investigated whether covariation bias is linked to right hemisphere preference. Subjects were exposed to a series of slides comprising pictures of spiders, weapons, and flowers. Slides were randomly paired with either a shock, a tone or nothing. Aposteriori, subjects indicated the contingencies of each stimulus/outcome combination. Data confirmed that anxiety was related to covariation bias. However, the hypothesis that cognitive biases are linked to a right hemisphere style of thinking was only partially sustained.